On the Holy Spirit

19. Addressing Gratian on the Restored Basilica

The Holy Spirit, therefore, is not among all things, but above all things. Now, concerning him (since you, most clement emperor, have been so fully instructed concerning the Son of God, that you yourself now teach), desiring and demanding to hear something more explicit, I shall not delay; especially since you have testified yourself to have been so recently delighted by an assertion of this kind, that you ordered the basilica of the Church to be restored without any prompting.

20. The Basilica's Restoration as a Work of the Spirit

We hold, then, already the grace of your faith, and the reward of ours; for we can say nothing else, but that this was the grace of the Holy Spirit, that, while all were unaware, you suddenly restored the basilica. This, I say, is the gift, this is the work of the Holy Spirit, who was indeed then being preached by us, but was working in you.

21. The Sequestration as a Test of Faith

Nor do I lament the losses of the earlier time; since indeed that sequestration of the basilica drew with it interest of a certain kind. For you sequestered the basilica, that you might test my faith. Your piety therefore fulfilled its purpose, which had so sequestered as to test; and so tested as to restore. Nor have I lost the fruit, and I hold to my judgment, and it was made plain to all, by a certain distinction in the matter, that your sentence was never truly at variance with itself. It was made plain, I say, to all, both that it was not yours when you sequestered, and that it was yours when you restored.

22. Ascending by Steps to Prove the Spirit Does Not Serve

Let us then begin first from the lower things, that our treatise may ascend, as it were, by certain steps, whereby those who do not yield to faith may more easily be bent by reason. For they can say at the outset: We too do not say that the Spirit serves. But since they say that Christ serves, how can they deny it concerning the Spirit? But if they agree, and it is agreed and fitting, that Christ was in the form of a servant according to the flesh, then it follows: if Christ, according to his own divinity, does not serve, neither does the Spirit serve. But if the Spirit does not serve, and all things serve, then the Spirit is above all things, since he does not serve as all things do.

23. Scriptural Proof That the Spirit Does Not Serve

Now let us establish by testimonies what we have said. The starting point of the argument is that all things serve. And that all things serve is clear, since it is written: All things serve thee. This the Spirit said through the Prophet. He did not say: we serve; but, they serve thee; that you might believe that he himself is excepted from servitude. Therefore, since all things serve, and the Spirit does not serve, surely the Holy Spirit is not among all things.

24. The Spirit Searches the Deep Things of God

For if we say that the Holy Spirit is among all things, then certainly, when we read that the Spirit searches the deep things of God, we deny that God the Father is above all things. For since the Spirit is from God, and is the Spirit of his mouth, how can we say the Holy Spirit is among all things, when God, whose Spirit he is, is above all things, being of full perfection and perfect power?

25. The Spirit as Witness to the Father and the Son

And lest they think that the Apostle erred, let them learn whose authority he followed for this assurance. For the Lord said in the Gospel: When the Paraclete is come, whom I will send you from my Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall bear witness of me. Therefore the Holy Spirit both proceeds from the Father, and bears witness of the Son. He bears witness also of the Father, a witness both faithful and true: than which nothing is fuller for expressing the divine majesty, nothing more evident for the unity of the divine power; since the Spirit knows the same things as the Son, being the witness of the Father's secrets and the undivided sharer in them.

26. The Spirit's Exception from No Man Hath Seen God

He excluded, therefore, from the knowledge of God the fellowship and multitude of the creature: but by not excluding the Holy Spirit, he showed that he is not a fellow of the creature. Whence also that which is read in the Gospel: Because no man hath seen God at any time, but the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him; this belongs to the exception of the Holy Spirit. For how has he not seen God, who searches even the deep things of God? How has he not seen God, who knows the things that are of God? How has he not seen God, who is from God? Therefore, since it is thus laid down that no man hath ever seen God, but the Spirit has seen him, surely the Spirit is excepted. He is therefore above all things, who is excepted from all things.

27. The Objection That the Spirit Is Numbered Among Things Made

It seems, holy Emperor, to be a full account of piety, but it does not seem so to the impious. Consider then what they are contriving. For heretics are wont to say that the Holy Spirit ought to be numbered among all things, because it is written of the Son of God: All things were made by him.

28. The Spirit Excepted from the Things That Were Made

How wickedly is that argument confused, which does not hold to the truth, and is entangled in a preposterous order of assertion! For this would have force, so that they might say the Holy Spirit is among all things, if they could prove him to be made. For Scripture says that all things which are made, were made through the Son: but since the Holy Spirit is not shown to be made, surely he cannot be proved to be among all things, since he was neither made like all things, nor created. This testimony, therefore, avails me for both points: that he may be proved to be above all things, because he was not made; and that, because he is above all things, he may not seem to have been made, nor to be numbered among the things that were made.

29. Why the Son Is Not Numbered Among All Things

But if someone, because the Evangelist stated that all things were made through the Word, does not except the Holy Spirit (although it was the Spirit of God speaking in John who said, All things were made by him, not, all things were made by us; since indeed the Lord himself showed that it is the Spirit of God who speaks in the Evangelists, saying: For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaketh in you); yet if someone, as I have said, does not except the Holy Spirit in this place, but numbers him among all things, then neither does he except the Son of God there, where the Apostle said: Yet to us there is one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we by him.

But that he may know that the Son is not among all things, let him read what follows; for when he says: And one Lord Jesus, by whom are all things, he certainly excepts the Son of God from all things, just as he excepted the Father.

30. One Impiety in Denying Father, Son, or Spirit

It is of the same impiety to derogate either from the Father, or from the Son, or from the Holy Spirit. For he does not believe in the Father, who does not believe in the Son; nor does he believe in the Son of God, who does not believe in the Spirit; nor can faith stand without the rule of truth. For whoever begins to deny the unity of power in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, cannot possibly, where there is no division, prove a divided faith. Therefore, as the unity of piety is to believe rightly, so also there is a unity of impiety in believing wrongly.

31. Why This Reasoning Would Also Exclude the Son

Thus those who think the Holy Spirit ought to be numbered among all things, because they read that all things were made through the Son, must also think that the Son himself ought to be numbered among all things, because they read: All things are of God. Nor, consequently, do they separate the Father from all things, who do not separate the Son from all creatures; since as all things are of the Father, so also all things are through the Son. Foreseeing this very thing in the Spirit, the Apostle spoke, lest it should seem, even to the impious who had heard the Son say, What my Father hath given me is greater than all, that he had placed the Son among all things.

32. Silence About the Spirit Is Not a Denial

But perhaps someone may say: for what reason, when he has said here, of the Father are all things, and through the Son are all things, did he keep silence about the Holy Spirit? And from this he may wish to draw an argument. But if he proceeds to interpret maliciously, how many places will he find in which the power of the Holy Spirit is proclaimed, in which Scripture has expressed nothing either of the Father or of the Son, but has left it to be understood!

40. One Name, One Power, Shared by Father, Son, and Spirit

Is it then, when the grace of the Spirit is proclaimed, that the grace of God the Father or of the only-begotten Son is denied? Not so; for as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, so also, it says, the love of God is poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us. And as he who is blessed in Christ is blessed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, because the name is one, the power one, so also, wherever any divine operation is designated as being of the Father, or of the Son, or of the Spirit, it is referred not only to the Holy Spirit, but also to the Father and the Son; nor only to the Father, but is also referred to the Son and the Spirit.

41. The Ethiopian Eunuch and the Disciples of John's Baptism

Thus, finally, the Ethiopian eunuch of Queen Candace, baptized in Christ, attained the full mystery. And those who denied that they knew the Holy Spirit, although they said they had been baptized with John's baptism, were baptized afterward; because John baptized unto the remission of sins, in the name of the coming Jesus, not in his own name. And therefore they did not know the Spirit, because they had not received baptism in the name of Christ, as John used to baptize. For John, although he did not baptize in the Spirit, nevertheless preached both Christ and the Spirit. Finally, when asked whether he himself might perhaps be the Christ, he answered: I baptize you with water, but there cometh one mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose; he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Therefore, since these had been baptized neither in the name of Christ nor with faith in the Holy Spirit, they could not have received the sacrament of baptism.

42. The Fullness of the Baptismal Confession of the Trinity

They were baptized, therefore, in the name of Jesus Christ: and their baptism was not repeated, but renewed; for there is one baptism. But where the full sacrament of baptism is not present, neither the beginning nor any semblance of baptism is to be reckoned. But it is full, if you confess the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. If you deny one, you will undermine the whole. And just as, if in speech you should comprehend but one—either the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit—yet in faith deny neither the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Spirit, the sacrament of faith is full; so also, though you name both the Father and the Son and the Spirit, yet if you diminish the power of the Father, or of the Son, or of the Holy Spirit, the whole mystery is empty. Finally, those very ones who had said, We have not even heard whether there be a Holy Spirit, were afterward baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And this redounded to their grace; because now, at Paul's preaching, they had come to know the Holy Spirit.

43. The Spirit Included Though Unnamed in the Baptismal Formula

Nor should it seem contrary, that although the Spirit was afterward passed over in word, yet he was believed; and what had been left unspoken in word was expressed in faith. For when it is said: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the mystery is fulfilled through the unity of the name; nor is the Spirit separated from the baptism of Christ; because John baptized unto repentance, but Christ baptizes in the Spirit.

44. Naming One Person Signifies the Whole Trinity

Now let us consider whether, just as we read that the sacrament of baptism is full in the name of Christ, so also, when only the Holy Spirit is named, nothing is lacking to the fullness of the mystery. Let us follow the reasoning; for whoever names one, has signified the Trinity. If you say Christ, you have designated both God the Father, by whom the Son was anointed, and him who was anointed, the Son, and the Holy Spirit by whom he was anointed. For it is written: This Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit. And if you say the Father, you have likewise indicated both his Son and the Spirit of his mouth—provided, however, that you also comprehend this in your heart. And if you say the Spirit, you have named both God the Father, from whom the Spirit proceeds, and the Son, since the Spirit is also of the Son.

45. One Baptism in the Spirit, One Body

Whence also, that authority may be joined to reason, Scripture indicates that we can rightly be baptized in the Spirit as well, the Lord saying: But you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And elsewhere the Apostle says: For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body. One work, because one mystery; one baptism, because one death for the world; a unity of proclamation which cannot be separated.

46. The Spirit Is Not Separated from the Godhead

But if in this place the Spirit is separated from the operation of the Father and the Son, because it is said: Of God are all things, and through the Son are all things; then also, where the Apostle says of Christ: Who is over all, God blessed forever, he has set him above not only all creatures, but even—which is impious to say—above the Father himself. But far be it; for the Father is not among all things, nor among a certain crowd of his creatures. Beneath is all creature; above is the divinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. That serves, this reigns; that lies subject, this rules; that is a work, this is the author of the work; that worships all, this is worshiped by all.

47. The Angels Worship the Son, Not the Spirit

Finally, it is written of the Son: And let all the angels of God worship him. You do not have: Let the Holy Spirit worship. And below: But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all, it says, ministering spirits, sent forth to minister? When it says, all, does it also include the Holy Spirit? Certainly not; because the Angels and the other Powers are appointed for ministry and service to the Son of God, that they may serve.

48. The Holy Spirit as Witness, Not Minister

But indeed the Holy Spirit is not a minister, but a witness of the Son, just as the Son himself said of him: He shall bear witness of me. The Spirit therefore is a witness of the Son. He who is a witness knows all things, just as God the Father is a witness. For thus you have it in what follows, that our salvation was confirmed, God bearing witness, both with signs and wonders, and with various powers, and distributions of the Holy Spirit. He who distributes what he wills, is surely above all things, not among all things; for to distribute belongs to the grace of the one who works, not to the material of the work.

49. The Spirit's Undivided Grace in Bestowing Gifts

If the Son is above all things, through whom our salvation received its beginning, that it might be preached: certainly God the Father also, who bears witness and affirms by signs and wonders concerning our salvation, is excepted from all things. So likewise the Spirit, who by his distributions bears witness to our salvation, is not to be numbered among the multitude of creatures, but is to be reckoned with the Father and the Son, who is not himself divided by any severance of himself, when he distributes; for since he is undivided, he loses nothing, though he bestows upon all: just as the Son, though the Father receives the kingdom, loses nothing; nor does the Father lose anything, when he hands over what is his to the Son. We know, then, that there is no loss in the distribution of spiritual grace, the Lord attesting it; for he who breathes where he wills, is everywhere without loss. Of which we shall speak more fully below.

50. Defining All Things by the Apostle's Words

Meanwhile, since it is now our purpose to assert in due order that the Spirit is not to be reckoned among all things, let us call as author of this assertion the very Apostle, from whose words they raise the question. For what those "all things" were, whether visible or invisible, he himself indicated, saying: For in him were all things created, in heaven and on earth. You see all things said of those which are either in heaven or on earth; for there are in heaven also invisible things which have been made.

51. The Spirit's Power Over Thrones, Dominions, and Powers

Yet lest it should be unknown to anyone, he added of what he was speaking: Whether Thrones, he says, or Dominions, or Principalities, or Powers, all things were created through him and in him, and he is before all things, and all things hold together in him. Does he then here include the Holy Spirit among creatures? Or when he says the Son of God is before all things, is he to be reckoned as having said he is before the Father? Certainly not; for just as here he says all things were created through the Son, and that all heavenly things hold together in him: so also it cannot be doubted that all heavenly things have their powers in the Holy Spirit, since it is written: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their power. He is therefore above all things, from whom is all the power of things heavenly and earthly.

He therefore who is above all things certainly does not serve; he who does not serve is free; he who is free has the rights of dominion.

52. A Strategy of Lesser Arguments Before Greater

If I had said this from the beginning, it would be denied. But just as they deny lesser things, lest greater things be believed: so let us also put forward lesser things first, so that either they may betray their own faithlessness even in lesser matters; or if they agree even to the lesser, we may gather the greater from the lesser.

53. Scripture's Full Refutation of Numbering the Spirit Among Creatures

I think, most clement Emperor, that those who dare to reckon the Holy Spirit among all things have been most fully refuted. But nevertheless, that they may know they are pressed not only by apostolic testimonies but also by the Lord's own words; how do they dare to number the Holy Spirit among all things, when the Lord himself said: Whoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come? How then does anyone dare to reckon the Spirit among creatures? Or who so binds himself, that if he detracts from a creature, he does not think this may be released to him by some pardon?

For if the Jews, because they worshipped the host of heaven, were deprived of divine protection: whereas he who adores and confesses the Holy Spirit is accepted by God; he who does not confess is condemned without pardon as guilty of sacrilege: certainly from this it can be judged that the Holy Spirit is not among all things, but above all things, since injury to him is expiated by eternal punishments.

54. Why Blasphemy Against the Spirit Cannot Be Forgiven

But why the Lord said: Whoever shall blaspheme against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come; attend diligently. Is the offense against the Son one thing, and against the Holy Spirit another? For as there is one dignity, so there is one injury. But if someone, deceived by the appearance of the human body, thinks something more meanly of Christ's flesh than is fitting (for it ought not to seem to us base, which is the palace of virtue, the fruit of the Virgin), he has guilt; yet he is not excluded from the pardon which he may attain by faith.

But if someone denies the eternal dignity, majesty, and power of the Holy Spirit, and thinks that demons are cast out not in the Spirit of God, but in Beelzebub: there can be no entreaty for pardon there, where there is the fullness of sacrilege; because he who has denied the Spirit has denied both God the Father and the Son; since the Spirit of God is the same as the Spirit of Christ.

55. One Spirit as There Is One Father and One Son

No one, however, will doubt that the Spirit is one, even though many have doubted concerning the one God. For many heretics have said that the God of the Old Testament is one, and of the New another. But just as there is one Father, who both spoke of old, as we read, to the fathers in the prophets, and in these last days has spoken to us in the Son: and just as there is one Son, who according to the sequence of the Old Testament was offended by Adam, was seen by Abraham, was adored by Jacob: so also the Holy Spirit is one, who boiled forth in the prophets, was breathed upon the apostles, was joined to the Father and the Son in the sacraments of baptism (Peter I, 21). Of him David says: And take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Of him also he said elsewhere: Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?

56. The Holy Spirit Identified as the Spirit of Christ

That you may know that the same is the Spirit of God who is the Holy Spirit, just as we also read in the Apostle: No one speaking in the Spirit of God says Anathema to Jesus; and no one can say, The Lord Jesus, but in the Holy Spirit, the Apostle himself called this Spirit the Spirit of God. He also called the same Spirit the Spirit of Christ, as you have it: But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And below: But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. He therefore is the Spirit of God who is the Spirit of Christ.

57. The Holy Spirit Called the Spirit of Life

He is also the Spirit of life, as the Apostle says: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and death.

58. The Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, and the Invisible Spirit

The Spirit therefore whom the Apostle called the Spirit of life, the Lord in the Gospel named the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth himself, as you have it: And I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom this world cannot receive, because it does not see him, nor know him. You have then the Spirit designated both as Paraclete, and as the Spirit of truth, and as the invisible Spirit, one and the same. How then do some, according to divinity, think the Son visible, when even the world cannot see the Spirit?

59. Peter's Words to Ananias Identify the Spirit of the Lord

Take now the very voice of the Lord, that he himself is the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth; for you have it at the end of this book: Receive the Holy Spirit. Peter also teaches that this same one who is the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Lord, saying: Ananias, why has it seemed to you to tempt and to lie to the Holy Spirit? And immediately he says the same thing to Ananias's wife: Why has it seemed good to you to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? When he says "to you," he shows that it is said of the same Spirit of whom he had spoken to Ananias. He therefore is the Spirit of the Lord who is the Holy Spirit.

60. The Holy Spirit Is the Spirit of the Father

The Lord also declared that this same Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father, saying according to Matthew that in persecution we are not to think what we should speak: For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father, who speaks in you. The same, according to Luke, says: Be not anxious how or what you shall answer, or what you shall say; for the Holy Spirit of God shall teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. Therefore, although many are called spirits, since it is written: Who makes his angels spirits; yet there is one Spirit of God.

61. The One Spirit Received by Apostles and Prophets

It is this one Spirit, then, whom both the apostles and the prophets have obtained. As also the vessel of election, the teacher of the Gentiles, says: For we have drunk of one Spirit; as of one who cannot be divided, but is poured into souls and glides into the senses, so as to quench the burning thirst of the world.

62. Every Creature Awaits the Spirit's Grace of Adoption

The Holy Spirit is not, therefore, of the substance of corporeal things; for he pours incorporeal grace upon corporeal things: but neither is he of the substance of invisible creatures; for they too receive sanctification from him, and through him surpass the rest of the works of the world. Whether you speak of Angels, or of Dominions, or of Powers, every creature awaits the grace of the Holy Spirit. For just as we are free through the Spirit, because God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying: Abba, Father. Wherefore now he is no longer a servant, but a son: so also every creature awaits the revelation of the sons of God, whom certainly the grace of the Holy Spirit has made sons of God. Therefore every creature itself shall be changed by the revelation of spiritual grace, and shall be freed from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God.

63. The Changeable Nature of Every Creature

Every creature therefore is changeable, not only that which has already been changed by some sin or by the condition of the elements; but also that which can be liable to the fault of corruption in its nature, even though it has not yet been so through the exercise of discipline; for as we have taught in the books above, it is clear that even the nature of angels could be changed. It is surely fitting to judge that as the nature of one is, so is that of the rest. The nature, then, of the others also is changeable, but improved by discipline.

64. The Spirit's Goodness Precludes Change

Every creature therefore is changeable, but the Holy Spirit is good and not changeable; for he who abolishes the faults of all, who forgives sins, cannot be changed by any fault. How then can he who by sanctifying changes others toward grace, himself be changed?

65. The Gospel Sayings on the Father's Good Gifts

How is he changeable, who is always good? For the Holy Spirit, through whom good things are ministered to us, is never evil. Whence also two evangelists, in one and the same passage, though in words differing from each other, indicated the same thing; for you have it in Matthew: If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! But according to Luke you will find it written thus: How much more shall your Father from heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! We observe then that the Holy Spirit is good, by the judgment of the Lord and the testimony of the evangelists: since one, instead of the Holy Spirit, named good things; the other, instead of good things, named the Holy Spirit. If then that which is good is the Holy Spirit, how is he not good?

66. Grace Poured Out After Christ's Triumph over Death

Nor is it misleading that some codices have, also according to Luke: How much more shall your Father from heaven give the good gift to those who ask him! This good gift is spiritual grace, which the Lord Jesus poured forth from heaven, after, fastened to the gibbet of the cross, bringing back the triumphal spoils of death emptied out, he rose victorious over death from the dead, as you have it written: Ascending on high he led captivity captive: he gave gifts to men. And well does he say, gifts; for just as the Son was given, of whom it is written: A child is born, a son is given to us, so spiritual grace also is given. Why indeed should I hesitate to say that the Holy Spirit also was given, since it is written: The love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us?

Whom, since captive breasts could not receive him, the Lord Jesus first led captivity captive; that he might pour out the gift of divine grace upon free affections.

67. Captive Captivity: The Victory of Christ's Freedom

And beautifully did he say: Captive captivity. For Christ's victory is the victory of freedom, which claimed grace for all, and bound none to injury. Therefore in the absolution of all, no one is a captive. And because at the time of the Lord's passion only injury was made void, which had lost all the captives it held; captivity, turning back upon itself, was made captive, no longer bound over to Belial, but to Christ, whom to serve is freedom. For he who was called in the Lord as a servant is the freedman of the Lord.

68. Does 'All Have Turned Aside' Include the Spirit

But to return to what was proposed: All, it says, have turned aside, together they have become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, there is not even one. If they except the Holy Spirit, they themselves thereby confess that He is not among all things; if they do not except Him, then let them admit that He too has turned aside among all.

69. The Fruit of the Spirit as Proof of Goodness

But let us see whether He possesses goodness, since He is the fount and source of goodness. For just as the Father has goodness, and the Son, so also the Holy Spirit has goodness. This the Apostle also taught, saying: But the fruit of the Spirit is peace, charity, joy, patience, goodness. But who doubts that He is good, whose fruit is goodness? For a good tree brings forth good fruits.

70. The Spirit of God's Mouth and the Deep Things of God

Therefore if God is good, how is He not good who is the Spirit of His mouth, who searches even the deep things of God? Or can any contagion of evil enter into the deep things of God? Whence also this is understood, how mad are they who deny the Son of God to be good, since they cannot deny the Spirit of Christ to be good; of whom the Son of God says: Therefore I said, He shall receive of mine.

71. The Spirit Turns Persecutors Into Apostles

Is the Spirit not good, who makes good men out of the very worst, abolishes sin, blots out evil, excludes crime, pours in the gift of goodness, makes apostles out of persecutors, priests out of sinners? You were, it says, once darkness, but now light in the Lord.

72. David's Testimony to the Good Spirit

But why do we delay them? For if they demand words, since they cannot deny the deeds, let them accept that the Spirit is written as good; for David said: Thy good Spirit shall lead me into the right way. For what is the Spirit, if not full of goodness? Who, though inaccessible in nature, is yet receivable by us on account of His goodness, filling all things with virtue, but is to be shared only by the just, simple in substance, rich in virtues, present to each one, dividing to each from His own, and everywhere whole.

73. The Spirit's Place in the Baptismal Formula

And rightly did the Son of God say: Go, baptize the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, not disdaining the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Why then do some now take it ill that the Spirit, whom the Lord did not disdain in the sacrament of baptism, should be joined by our devotion to the Father or the Son?

74. The Spirit Sanctifies but Is Not Sanctified

Good, therefore, is the Spirit: good, however, not as one acquiring, but as one imparting goodness. For the Holy Spirit does not receive from creatures, but is received; just as He is not sanctified, but Himself sanctifies; for a creature is sanctified, but the Holy Spirit sanctifies. In this, although there is a community of the word, yet there is a distinction of nature. For both the man who receives is called holy, and God who bestows holiness; because we read: Be ye holy, because I also am holy. Sanctification, therefore, and corruptibility cannot be of one nature; and therefore the grace of the Holy Spirit and the creature cannot be of one substance.

75. Why the Holy Spirit Cannot Be a Creature

Therefore, since every invisible nature apart from the Trinity—whose rational and incorporeal substance some rightly suppose—does not impart spiritual grace but acquires it, and does not share in it but assumes it: the community of the creature must certainly be separated from the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Let them believe, therefore, that the Holy Spirit is not a creature: or if they think Him a creature, why do they associate Him with the Father? If they judge Him a creature, why do they join Him to the Son of God? But if they do not think He should be separated from the Father and the Son, let them not deem Him a creature; because where there is one sanctification, there is one nature.

76. The Difference Between the Gifts of Water and Spirit

Yet there are very many who, because we are baptized in water and in the Spirit, do not think the gifts of water and the Spirit to differ; and therefore they do not think the nature differs. Nor do they notice that we are buried in that element of waters, so that renewed through the Spirit we may rise again. For in the water is the image of death, in the Spirit the pledge of life; that through the water the body of sin may die, which the water encloses as in a kind of tomb; and that through the power of the Spirit we may be renewed from the death of sin, reborn in God.

77. Water, Blood, and Spirit as One Witness

And therefore these three witnesses are one, as John said: Water, blood, and Spirit. One in mystery, not in nature. Water, therefore, is witness of the burial, blood is witness of the death, the Spirit is witness of the life. If, then, there is any grace in the water, it is not from the nature of the water, but from the presence of the Holy Spirit.

78. The Spirit as Pledge of Our Inheritance

Do we live in the water, as we live in the Spirit? Are we sealed in the water, as we are sealed in the Spirit? For in Him we live, and He is the pledge of our inheritance, as the Apostle also writes to the Ephesians, saying: In whom, believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance. We are sealed, therefore, by the Holy Spirit, not by nature, but by God, because it is written: who has anointed us, God, and who has sealed us, and has given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts.

79. The Spiritual Seal Upon the Heart

We are sealed, then, by the Spirit, by God. For just as we die in Christ, that we may be reborn; so also we are sealed by the Spirit, that we may be able to hold His splendor and image and grace: which is indeed a spiritual seal. For although we are sealed in appearance in the body, yet in truth we are sealed in the heart; that the Holy Spirit may express in us the likeness of the heavenly image.

80. Partakers of the Divine Nature Through the Spirit

Who then would dare to say that the Holy Spirit is separate from God the Father and Christ, since through Him we deserve to be after the image and likeness of God; and through Him it comes to pass, as the apostle Peter said (2 Peter I, 4), that we are made partakers of the divine nature? In this there is indeed not the inheritance of carnal succession, but the spiritual exchange of the grace of adoption. And that we may know that this is a seal rather of our heart than of the body, the Prophet teaches, who says: The light of Thy countenance is sealed upon us, O Lord; Thou hast put gladness in my heart.

81. Creatures Are Circumscribed, the Spirit Is Not

Since, then, every creature is circumscribed by certain limits of its own nature; and indeed even those invisible works, which cannot be comprehended by places and boundaries, are yet enclosed by the proper limit of their own substance: how could anyone dare to call the Holy Spirit a creature, who has no circumscribed and determined power; since He is in all things and everywhere always, which is certainly the proper mark of divinity and dominion: for the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof? And therefore when the Lord sent forth His servants the apostles, that we might recognize that a creature is one thing, spiritual grace another, He sent different ones to different places; because they could not all be everywhere at once. But He gave the Holy Spirit to all, who, though the apostles were separated, might pour in the gift of inseparable grace.

There were, then, diverse persons, but one effect of operation in all; because the Holy Spirit is one, of whom He says: You shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth.

82. Where Shall I Go From Thy Spirit

Uncircumscribed, therefore, and infinite is the Holy Spirit, who poured Himself into the senses of the disciples through the divisions of separate regions and the remote bounds of the whole world, whom nothing can escape or deceive. And therefore holy David says: Where shall I go from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy face? Of which Angel does Scripture say this? Of which Domination? Of which Power? Of which Angel shall we find the power diffused through so many? For angels were sent to few, but the Holy Spirit was poured out upon peoples. Who then can doubt that what is poured out simultaneously upon many, and yet is not seen, is divine: while what is seen and held by individuals is bodily?

83. The Spirit's Sanctification of Angels and Men Compared

But just as the Spirit sanctifying the apostles is not a partaker of human nature; so also, sanctifying the Angels, Dominations, and Powers, He has no fellowship with creature. But if any think that there is not spiritual holiness in angels, but some other kind of grace by the property of their own nature, these will surely judge angels inferior to men. For since they themselves confess that they dare not compare angels to the Holy Spirit, and cannot deny that the Holy Spirit is poured out upon men: and since sanctification by the Spirit is a divine gift and endowment; it will certainly be found that men, who have a better sanctification, are to be preferred to angels. But since angels descend to the aid of men, it must be understood that a creature which receives more of spiritual grace is indeed superior to the angels; yet the gift toward us and toward them is of the same author.

84. Grace Makes Men Equal to the Angels

But how great is that grace which equals even the lower creation of the human condition to the rewards of the angels, as the Lord Himself promised, saying: You shall be as the angels in heaven? Nor is it difficult; for He who made those angels in the Spirit will also, through the same grace, make men like the angels.

85. The Spirit Fills All Things, as Shown to Mary

Of what creature can it be said that it has filled all things, as is written of the Holy Spirit: I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh? This cannot be said of an angel. Finally, Gabriel himself, sent to Mary, said: Hail, full of grace; declaring indeed the spiritual grace in her, that the Holy Spirit had come upon her, and that she would have a womb full of grace with the heavenly Word.

86. The Spirit That Filled Jesus at the Jordan

For it belongs to the Lord to fill all things, who says: I fill heaven and earth. If, then, He is the Lord who fills heaven and earth; who can judge the Holy Spirit to be without dominion and divine power, who filled the world, and—more than the whole world—filled Jesus, the redeemer of the whole world? For it is written: And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan. Who else, then, unless one of the same fullness, could fill Him who fills all things?

87. The Spirit Fills the World and Gives Confidence

But lest they object that this was said according to the flesh; although that One alone was more than all: from whose flesh went out power that healed all: yet just as the Lord fills all things, so also of the Spirit it is read: For the Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world (Wisdom I, 7). You have also, concerning all who had gathered with the apostles, that it is said: being filled with the Holy Spirit, they spoke the word of God with confidence. You see that the Holy Spirit gives both fullness and confidence; whose operation the archangel announces to Mary, saying: The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee.

88. The Angel at the Pool as a Figure of the Spirit

You have also in the Gospel that an angel at a certain time went down into the pool, and the water was moved: and whoever went down first into the pool was made whole. What did the angel announce in this figure, if not the descent of the Holy Spirit, which in our times was to come and, being invoked by priestly prayers, would consecrate the waters? That angel, therefore, was the messenger of the Holy Spirit, because through spiritual grace a remedy was to be brought for the languors of our soul and mind. The Spirit, therefore, has the same ministers as God the Father and Christ. Thus He fills all things, thus He possesses all things, thus He works all things and in all things, just as God the Father works, and the Son.

89. The Spirit as President of God's Blessings

What, then, is more divine than the operation of the Holy Spirit, since God Himself testifies that the Spirit is the president of His blessings, saying: I will put my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessings upon thy sons (Isaiah XLIV, 3)? For no blessing can be full, except through the infusion of the Holy Spirit. Whence the apostle found nothing better to wish for us than this, as he himself said: We do not cease praying and beseeching for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, walking worthily of God. He taught, then, that this is the will of God, that walking rather in good works and words and thoughts we may be filled with the will of God, who puts the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Therefore if he who has the Holy Spirit is filled with the will of God; certainly there is no distance of will between the Father and the Spirit.

90. God, Not Man, Bestows the Spirit

At the same time note this, that God gives the Holy Spirit. For this is not a human work, nor is it given by man: but he who is invoked by the priest is bestowed by God, wherein the gift is God's, the ministry the priest's. For if the Apostle Paul judged that he himself could not bestow the Holy Spirit by his own authority, and believed himself so unequal to this office that he prayed that we be filled with the Spirit by God; who is so great that he would dare to arrogate to himself the bestowal of this gift? Thus the Apostle presented his wish by prayer, he did not claim a right by any authority: he wished to obtain, he did not presume to command. Peter also said that he was not fit either to compel or to restrain the Holy Spirit. For thus he said: If then God gave them the same grace as to us, who was I, that I could withstand God?

91. Scriptural Proofs from Jacob and Isaiah

But perhaps they are not moved by apostolic examples, and so let us use divine oracles; for it is written: Jacob my servant, I will uphold him: Israel my chosen, my soul has taken him up, I have put my Spirit upon him. The Lord also said through Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, wherefore he has anointed me.

92. Against the Spirit as a Created Being

Who then would dare to say that the substance of the Holy Spirit is created, seeing that when he has shone in our hearts, we discern the beauty of divine truth, and know the distance between creature and divinity, so that the work is set apart from its author? Or of what creature has God spoken thus, that he would pour forth either Dominations or Powers or Angels? But of my Spirit, he says, I will pour forth. He does not say "the Spirit," but "of my Spirit"; for we cannot contain the fullness of the Holy Spirit, but we receive only so much as the arbiter of our being has apportioned to us according to his will.

For as the Son of God did not think it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, that we might be able to receive him in our souls: yet he emptied himself not because he himself was void of his own fullness; but that for me, who could not sustain his fullness, there might be poured in as much as I could receive: so also concerning the Holy Spirit the Father says he pours forth upon all flesh; for he did not pour forth the whole, but what he poured forth abounded unto all.

93. The Spirit's Fullness Rests on Christ Alone

Upon us therefore something of the Spirit has been poured out: but upon the Lord Jesus, when he was in the form of man, the Spirit remained, as it is written: Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending from heaven, and remaining upon him, this is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. Toward us, from the abundant benefit, it is the liberality of one bestowing; in him the fullness of the Spirit remains whole forever. What therefore he judged sufficient for us, he poured forth: and what was poured forth is not separated nor cut off: but it possesses the unity of fullness, whereby it illumines the sight of our heart according to the capacity of our strength. Indeed we receive only as much as the progress of our mind acquires; for the fullness of spiritual grace is inseparable, but it is shared with us according to the capacity of our nature.

94. The Unity of the Spirit's Grace and Charity

God therefore pours forth of the Spirit, and the charity of God also is poured forth through the Spirit: wherein we ought to recognize the unity of operation and grace. For as God poured forth of the Holy Spirit, so also, The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit; that we may understand that the Holy Spirit, who is the arbiter and flowing fount of divine charity, is not a work.

95. The Pouring Out of the Son's Name

Likewise, that you may believe that what is poured forth cannot be common with creatures, but is proper to divinity alone; even the name of the Son is poured out, as you have: Your name is oil poured out. Than the force of this saying nothing can be more excellent. For as an ointment enclosed in some vessel contains its own scent, which scent, as long as it is confined within the narrow limits of that vessel, though it cannot reach to many, still keeps its power; but when the ointment has been poured out from that vessel by which it was enclosed, it is spread far and wide: so also the name of Christ, before his coming, was enclosed among the people of Israel, as it were in some vessel, within the minds of the Jews: For known in Judea is God, in Israel great is his name: this indeed being the name that the vessels of the Jews contained, confined within their own narrow limits.

96. The Name of Christ Spreads to All Nations

Great indeed was the name even then, when it clung to the narrow confines of the weak and the few: but he had not yet poured forth his greatness through the hearts of the nations, and into the ends of the whole world. But after he shone through his coming over all the world, he extended that divine name of his through absolutely every creature, not filled by any increase (for fullness knows no increase) but filling what was empty, that his name might be wonderful in all the earth. This pouring forth of the name, therefore, signifies a certain abundant overflow of graces, and a generosity of heavenly goods; for whatever is poured forth overflows from abundance.

97. The Spirit Is Uncreated, Undivided, and Eternal

Thus, just as the wisdom that proceeds from the mouth of God cannot be called created, nor the Word which is uttered forth from the heart, nor the power in which is the fullness of eternal majesty: so also the Spirit, who is poured forth from the mouth of God, cannot be reckoned created; since God himself has shown such unity that he says he pours forth of his own Spirit. Whereby we may understand that the grace of God the Father is the same as that of the Holy Spirit, and that it is divided among the minds of each without any cutting off or diminution. What therefore is poured forth of the Spirit of God is neither cut into pieces, nor comprehended nor severed by any bodily parts. 98. For how is it credible that the Spirit should be divided by any cutting? John says of God: By this we know that he abides in us, from the Spirit which he has given us.

But that which always abides, certainly does not change: therefore if it has no change, it has eternity. And so the Holy Spirit is everlasting; but a creature is subject to defect, and therefore mutable. But what is mutable cannot be everlasting: and so there cannot be fellowship between the Holy Spirit and a creature; because the Spirit is everlasting, but every creature is in time.

99. Paul's Proof of the Spirit's Eternity

The Apostle also shows that the Holy Spirit is everlasting: For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled sanctify the defiled for the cleansing of the flesh; how much more the blood of Christ, who through the everlasting Spirit offered himself unspotted to God! Therefore the Spirit is everlasting.

100. Christ Anointed as Prince of Priests

Many, however, have thought that the anointing of Christ is the Holy Spirit. And rightly is it called anointing, because it is named oil of gladness, breathing forth the union of a great many graces: and indeed God the almighty Father anointed him as prince of priests, who was anointed not as others in figure, under the law, but was also anointed according to the law in the body, and in truth, above the law, is full from the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit.

101. Peter's Testimony to Christ's Anointing

This is the oil of gladness, of which the prophet says: God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows. Finally Peter says that Jesus was anointed with the Spirit, as you have: You know the word which was made through all Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached, Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit. The oil of gladness, therefore, is the Holy Spirit.

102. The Incorruptible Oil of Gladness

And beautifully he called it the oil of gladness, lest you should think it a creature; for it is the nature of oil of this kind never to be mixed with the moisture of another nature. Gladness also does not anoint the body, but illuminates the inmost parts of the heart, as the prophet said: You have put gladness in my heart. Therefore, since he is playing at a vain task who wishes to confuse oil with a more liquid creature; because, since the nature of oil is lighter than the rest, when the others settle, it is separated, being raised up: how do these most base tavern-keepers suppose that the oil of gladness can, by their fraud, be confused with other creatures; since certainly incorporeal things cannot be mixed with corporeal, nor uncreated with created?

And well is it called the oil of gladness with which Christ was anointed; for it was not necessary for him to seek an ordinary and common oil, by which either wounds are healed, or heat is relieved: since worldly health did not need a remedy for its own wounds, nor did eternal power demand refreshment for a weary body.

103. The Spiritual Meaning of Christ's Anointing

Nor is it strange that he has the oil of gladness, who made those about to die exult, stripped the world of sorrow, abolished the stench of mournful death. And so the Apostle says: For we are the good odor of Christ unto God; signifying, indeed, that he spoke of spiritual things. But also when the Son of God himself says: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, wherefore he has anointed me, he signifies a spiritual anointing. Therefore the anointing of Christ is the Spirit.

104. The Name of Jesus as Poured-Out Oil

Or because the name of Jesus is oil poured out, if they wish there to understand Christ himself expressed under the name of ointment, not the Spirit of Christ; yet since the apostle Peter said that the Lord Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit, it is clear beyond doubt that the Spirit too is called an anointing.

105. The Father and Son Also Called Spirit

But what wonder, since both the Father and the Son are said to be spirit? Of which indeed we shall speak more fully, when we begin to speak of the unity of the name (Below, chap. 14). Yet since here too a most beautiful point occurs, lest we seem to pass it by without a corollary, let them accept that the Father also is called spirit, as in the Gospel the Lord said, because God is spirit; and Christ is called spirit; because Jeremiah said: The Spirit before our face is Christ the Lord (Lament. IV, 20).

106. The Holy Spirit Distinct from Father and Son

Both the Father, then, is spirit, and the Son is spirit; because whatever in a creature is not body, this is spirit: but the Holy Spirit is not confused with the Father and the Son, but is distinct both from the Father and from the Son. For the Holy Spirit did not die, who could not die; because he did not take on flesh, nor could the everlasting divinity be capable of death: but Christ died according to the flesh.

107. Christ's Death in the Flesh He Assumed

He died indeed in that which he took from the Virgin: not in that which he had from the Father; for he died in that in which Christ was crucified. But the Holy Spirit could not be crucified, who had no flesh and bones: but the Son of God, who took on flesh and bones, was crucified; that on that cross the temptations of our flesh might die. For he took up what he was not, that he might conceal what he was: he concealed what he was, that he might be tempted in that which he was not, and that what he was not might be redeemed; that through that which he was not he might call us to that which he was.

108. The Mystery of the Cross and Faith's Bonds

O divine mystery of that cross, in which weakness clings, virtue is free, vices are nailed fast, trophies are raised up! Whence a certain saint says: Nail my flesh with nails from your fear; not with nails of iron, he says, but of fear and faith: for the constriction of virtue is more forceful than that of punishment. Finally, Peter, when he followed the Lord even into the courtyard of the high priest, whom no one had bound, faith had bound: and whom faith bound, punishment did not loose. Again, when he was bound by the Jews, devotion loosed him, punishment did not hold him; because he did not withdraw from Christ.

109. Crucifying Sin to Live for God

Therefore you too crucify sin, that you may die to sin; for he who dies to sin lives to God: may you live for him who did not spare his own Son; that in his body he might crucify our passions. For Christ died for us, that we might live in his revived body. Not our life, then, died in him, but our guilt: Who bore our sins, it says, in his body upon the tree; that being separated from our sins, we might live to righteousness, by whose wounding of stripes we have been healed (1 Peter II, 24).

110. The Cross as the Vessel of Salvation

That wood of the cross, then, is like a certain conveyance of our ship of salvation, our passage, not our punishment; for there is no other salvation, except the conveyance of eternal salvation. While I seek death, I do not feel it: while I despise punishment, I do not suffer it: while I know no fear, by disregarding it.

111. Christ Made Sin for Us Without Sinning

Who then is he by whose wound of stripes we have been healed, but Christ the Lord: of whom the same Isaiah prophesied that his wound is our medicine: of whom the apostle Paul wrote in his epistles: Who knew no sin, but was made sin for us? For this indeed is divine in him, that the flesh committed no sin, nor did the created nature assumed in him sin. For what wonder is it, if the divinity alone did not sin, since it has no incentives to sin? But if God alone is exempt from sin, surely every creature, by reason of its own nature, as we have said, can be liable to sin.

112. Forgiveness Belongs to God, Not Angels

Say then, whoever you are who deny the divinity of the Holy Spirit: yet the Spirit could not be liable to sin, who rather forgives sins. Does an angel forgive? Does an archangel? Not at all, but the Father alone forgives, the Son alone, the Holy Spirit alone. But no one is unable to avoid what he is able to grant.

113. The Seraph's Coal as a Sign of Grace

But perhaps someone has said that the Seraphim too said to Isaiah: Behold, this has touched your lips, and will take away your iniquities, and will purge away your sins round about. It will take away, he says, and will purge round about: not I shall take away, but that fire from the altar of God, that is, the spiritual grace. For what else can we piously understand to be on the altar of God, but the grace of the Spirit? Not wood of the forests, surely, nor soot and coal. Or what is so devout as to understand according to the mystery that it was revealed in the mouth of Isaiah that all men were to be purged through the passion of Christ, who, as it were coal according to the flesh, burned away our sins, as you have it in Zechariah: Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? And that was Jesus clothed with filthy garments.

114. Christ's Flesh Purged the Sins of Mankind

Finally, that we may know that this mystery of common redemption was most clearly revealed through the prophets, in this same place too you have it said: Behold, he has taken away your sins: not that Christ laid aside his own sins, who committed no sin; but that in the flesh of Christ the whole human race was absolved from its sins.

115. The Seraph Sent to One Alone

But even if a Seraph had taken away sin, this mystery would surely have been assigned as if to one only of God's ministers. For so Isaiah said: For one of the Seraphim was sent to me.

116. The Seraph's Ministry Versus the Spirit's Work

And the Spirit indeed is said to be sent: but the Seraph to one, the Spirit to all: the Seraph is sent for a ministry, the Spirit works the mystery: the Seraph carries out what is commanded, the Spirit distributes what he wills: the Seraph passes from place to place; for he does not fill all things, but is himself filled by the Spirit: the Seraph descends by a certain passage according to his nature; but of the Holy Spirit we cannot suppose this, of whom the Son of God says: When the Paraclete shall come, the Spirit of truth, whom I send to you, who proceeds from the Father.

117. Against a Spatial Account of the Spirit's Procession

For if the Spirit proceeds from a place, and passes to a place, then the Father himself will be found in a place, and the Son also. If he who is sent proceeds from a place, whether the Father sends him or the Son, then surely the Spirit, passing from place and advancing, according to impious interpretations, seems to leave, as a body would, both the Father and the Son.

118. The Father, Son, and Spirit Are Not Confined by Place

I say this according to those who say that the Spirit has a descending motion. But neither is the Father circumscribed in any place, who is above all things, not only corporeal nature, but even invisible creation; nor is the Son confined by the places and times of his own works, who is above all creation, the maker of the whole creation; nor is the Spirit of truth, inasmuch as he is the Spirit of God, circumscribed by any corporeal bounds: who, since he is incorporeal, surpasses every intelligible substance of creation by the ineffable fullness of divinity, breathing where he wills, and inspiring as he wills, having power over all things.

119. Proceeding from the Son Is Not Spatial Motion

Therefore the Spirit is not sent as though from a place, nor does he proceed as though from a place, when he proceeds from the Son, just as the Son himself, when he says: I proceeded from the Father, and came into the world, destroys all opinions which can be supposed to go from place to place, as in certain corporeal things. Likewise also, when we read that God is either within or without, we do not by any means enclose God within some body, nor separate him from some body: but weighing this with a lofty and ineffable estimation, we understand the secret of the divine nature.

120. Wisdom Comes Forth Without Separation from the Father

Finally, thus Wisdom says that she came forth from the mouth of the Most High, not that she is outside the Father; but with the Father; because the Word was with God: and not only with the Father, but also in the Father. For he says: I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. But neither, when he goes out from the Father, does he withdraw from a place, or as it were separate as body from body; nor, when he is in the Father, is he enclosed as it were like a body within a body. The Holy Spirit likewise, when he proceeds from the Father and the Son, is not separated from the Father, is not separated from the Son. For how can he be separated from the Father, who is the Spirit of his mouth? Which surely expresses both a sign of eternity and a unity of divinity.

121. Why the Spirit Seems to Descend to Us

He is, then, and remains always, who is the Spirit of the mouth: but he seems to descend, when we receive him, that he may dwell in us; lest we be strangers to his grace. He seems to descend to us, not because he descends, but because our soul ascends to him. Of which we would speak more fully, did we not remember that it has already been set forth in the earlier books that the Father too said: Let us go down and confound their tongues; and the Son said: He who loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him: and we will come to him, and make our abode with him.

122. The Spirit's Coming Is Not from Place to Place

So then the Spirit comes, just as the Father comes; because where the Father is, there is the Son also: and where the Son is, there is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, therefore, is not to be thought to come separately. But he comes not from place to place, but from the arrangement of establishment to the salvation of redemption, from the grace of vivification to the grace of sanctification; that he may transfer from earth to heaven, from injury to glory, from servitude to kingdom.

123. The Full Presence of Father and Son in the Spirit

So then the Spirit comes, just as the Father comes. For the Son said: I and the Father will come, and will make our abode with him. Does the Father then come bodily? So too the Spirit comes, in whose coming there is the full presence both of the Father and of the Son.

124. No One Preaches Christ Without the Spirit

But who can separate the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son, since we cannot even call upon the Father and the Son without the Spirit? For no one says, Lord Jesus, except in the Holy Spirit. Therefore if we cannot call upon the Lord Jesus without the Spirit, surely we cannot preach without the Spirit. But if angels also preach the Lord Jesus, whom no one can preach without the Spirit; then in them too the gift of the Holy Spirit is at work.

125. One Grace of the Father, Son, and Spirit

We have proved, then, that there is one presence, one grace, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: which is so heavenly and divine, that for it the Son gives thanks to the Father, saying: I confess to thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to little ones.

126. One Calling, One Grace, One Peace

Since, then, there is one calling, there is also one grace. Furthermore it is written: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold, we have it that the grace of the Father and the Son is one, and the peace of the Father and the Son is one: but this grace and peace is the fruit of the Spirit, as the Apostle himself taught, saying: But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience. And peace is good and necessary, that no one may be disturbed by the uncertainties of disputations, nor be shaken by the storm of bodily passions: but that with simplicity of faith, and tranquility of mind, a quiet affection may persevere around the worship of God.

127. The Grace of the Spirit in Zechariah and Peter

We have proved concerning peace: but concerning grace the prophet Zechariah says, that God promised to pour out upon Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and mercy; and the apostle Peter says: Do penance, and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, as of the Father and the Son, so also of the Holy Spirit is the grace. For how can grace be without the Spirit, since all divine grace is in the Holy Spirit?

128. The Charity of the Father and the Son Is One

Nor do we read only of the peace and grace of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; but also of charity, and communion, faithful Augustus. For of charity it is said: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God. We have received the charity of the Father. The same charity which is of the Father, is also of the Son. For he himself said: He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him. For what is the charity of the Son, except that he offered himself for us, and redeemed us by his blood? But the same charity is also in the Father, because it is written: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son.

129. Father and Son Both Deliver Up the Son

The Father, then, handed over the Son, and the Son himself handed over himself. Charity is preserved, and piety is not injured; for there is no injury to piety, where there is no hardship of betrayal. He handed over one who was willing, one who was offering, the Father handed over the Son not indeed for punishment, but for grace. If you examine the merit of the deed, inquire into the meaning of the word "piety." The vessel of election clearly shows this unity of divine charity; for both the Father handed over the Son, and the Son himself handed over himself. The Father handed him over, who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. Of the Son also it is said: Who delivered himself for me. He delivered him up, it says. If it be a matter of grace, why do I accuse? If of injury, I owe the more.

130. The Spirit Also Delivers Up the Son

But as the Father handed over the Son, and the Son himself handed over himself, understand that the Spirit too handed him over. For it is written: Then Jesus was led up into the desert by the Spirit, to be tempted by the devil. So the Spirit too, loving, handed over the Son of God. For as the charity of the Father and the Son is one, so we have declared that this charity of God is poured out above through the Holy Spirit, and is the fruit of the Holy Spirit; because the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience.

131. One Communion, One Operation of the Trinity

But it is manifest that communion belongs both to the Father and the Son, because it is written: And our communion is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ; and elsewhere: The communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. If, then, there is one peace, one grace, one charity, one communion of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; certainly there is one operation: and where there is one operation, surely power cannot be divided, and substance separate. For how could the grace of the same operation agree together?

132. The Unity of the Baptismal Name

Who then would dare to deny the unity of the name, when he sees the unity of the operation? But why do I establish by arguments the unity of the name; when there is clear testimony of the divine voice that the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is one? For it is written: Go, baptize the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He said "in the name," not "in the names." Therefore the name of the Father is not one thing, the name of the Son another, the name of the Holy Spirit another; because there is one God: not many names; because there are not two Gods, not three Gods.

133. The Same Name Belongs to Father and Son

And that he might reveal that there is one divinity, one majesty, that there is one name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; nor did the Son come in one name and the Holy Spirit in another name, the Lord himself says: I have come in the name of my Father, and you have not received me: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. Now that the name is the same for the Father as for the Son, Scripture declares; for in Exodus the Lord said: I will go before thee in my name, and will call the Lord in my name before thee. The Lord therefore said that he would call the Lord in his own name: therefore the name Lord belongs both to the Father and to the Son.

134. The Spirit Shares the Name of Father and Son

Now since the name of the Father and of the Son is one, understand that the name of the Holy Spirit is the same also, since the Holy Spirit too comes in the name of the Son, as it is written: But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things. But he who comes in the name of the Son surely comes also in the name of the Father, since the name of the Father and of the Son is one. Thus it comes about that the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is one. Nor indeed is there any other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved.

135. Christ's Unity of Name Against Antichrist

At the same time he taught that a unity of the divine name is to be believed, not a disparity; since Christ came in unity of name: but Antichrist is to come in his own name, as it is written: I have come in the name of my Father, and you have not received me: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive.

136. Son and Spirit Both Called Paraclete

It has been taught, therefore, from these things that there is no diversity of name in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit the Paraclete: and that the name which is the Father's is also the name of the Son; likewise that the name which is the Son's is also that of the Holy Spirit; since even the Son is called Paraclete, as also the Holy Spirit. And therefore the Lord Jesus says in the Gospel: I will ask my Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you for ever, the Spirit of truth. And he rightly said "another," lest you should understand the Son himself, the Spirit himself; for it is a unity of name, not a Sabellian confusion of the Son and the Spirit.

137. Two Paracletes, One Power

Thus the Son is one Paraclete, the Holy Spirit another Paraclete; for John too called the Son Paraclete, as you have: If any man sin, we have an advocate paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ. Thus, just as there is a unity of name, so also there is a unity of power; for where the Spirit is Paraclete, there also is the Son.

138. The Spirit and Son Remain Forever Present

For just as here the Lord says the Spirit will be with the faithful forever, so also elsewhere he shows concerning himself that he will be with the apostles forever, saying: Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. The Son and the Spirit, therefore, are one: the name of the Trinity is one, and the presence is one and inseparable.

139. The Spirit Is Also Called Truth

Now just as we have shown that the Son is named Paraclete, so also we have shown that the Spirit is called Truth. Christ is truth; the Spirit is truth; for you have in the epistle of John: Because the Spirit is truth. Therefore the Spirit is not only called the Spirit of truth, but is also called truth itself, just as the Son too is proclaimed truth, who says: I am the way and the truth and the life.

140. The Father Is Light, in Whom Is No Darkness

But why should I go on to establish that, just as the Father is light, so also the Son is light, and the Holy Spirit is light? This surely belongs to the divine power. For God is light, as John said: That God is light, and in him there is no darkness.

141. The Son Is the True Light

But the Son too is light, since the life was the light of men. And to show that the Evangelist had spoken this concerning the Son of God, he says of John the Baptist: He was not the light, but was to bear witness of the light. That was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world. Since, therefore, God is light, and the Son of God is the true light: without doubt the Son of God is true God.

142. The Son's Light Reveals the Spirit's Light

You have also elsewhere that the Son of God is light: The people that sat in darkness and in the shadow of death have seen a great light. And what could be more evident than what he says: For with thee is the fountain of life, and in thy light we shall see light? That is, that with thee, almighty God the Father, who art the fountain of life, in thy light—the Son—we shall see the light of the Holy Spirit. As the Lord himself shows, saying: Receive the Holy Spirit; and elsewhere: And virtue went out from him.

143. The Son Is the Brightness of the Father's Light

But who could doubt that the Father himself is light, since it is read of his Son that he is the brightness of eternal light? For whose brightness is the Son, if not that of the eternal Father, who is always with the Father, and, with no dissimilar but the very same brightness, ever shines forth?

144. The Holy Spirit as Light and Fire

And Isaiah signifies that the Holy Spirit is not only light but also fire, saying: And the light of Israel shall be for a fire. Thus the prophets have called him a burning fire; because in these three characteristics we perceive more readily the majesty of the divinity: since to sanctify belongs to divinity; and to illuminate is the property of fire and of light: and to be expressed or seen in the form of fire is a custom proper to the divine: for God is a consuming fire, as Moses said.

145. The Burning Bush and the Baptism of Fire

For he himself saw fire in the bush, and had heard God, then when a voice came from the flame of fire to him saying: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. The voice, therefore, from the flame, and the flame in the bush, and a flame that did no harm. For the bush was burning, and was not consumed; because by that mystery the Lord was prefiguring that he would come to illuminate the thorns of our body: not to consume the wretched, but to alleviate wretchedness; he who would baptize in the Holy Spirit and fire; that he might bestow grace, and consume sins. So, in the form of fire, God preserves his purpose.

146. Tongues of Fire at Pentecost

In the Acts of the Apostles also, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the faithful, the appearance of fire was seen; for so you have it: And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming; and it filled the whole house where they were sitting: and there appeared to them divided tongues, as it were of fire.

147. Gideon's Pitchers and the Fire of the Spirit

Whence also that instance when Gideon, about to overcome Midian, ordered three hundred men to take pitchers, and to have lighted torches in the pitchers, and to hold trumpets in their right hands; so our elders, receiving it from the apostles, have kept it, that the pitchers are our bodies, formed of clay, which do not know how to fear, if they catch fire with the fervor of spiritual grace, and testify to the passion of the Lord Jesus by the tuneful confession of the voice.

148. The Spirit's Divinity Shown by Unity of Power

Who, then, could doubt the divinity of the Holy Spirit, since wherever the grace of the Spirit is, there the appearance of divinity appears? By which testimony we gather not diversity, but unity of the divine power. For how can there be a distinction of power where there is one effect of operation in all things? Nor indeed can there be the grace of the sacraments, except where there has been the pardon of sins.

149. The Holy Spirit as Fire and Sealing Light

Who then is this fire? Not indeed one made up of cheap brushwood, or crackling with the burning of forest stubble: but that fire which, as gold, improves good deeds, and, as stubble, consumes sins. This surely is the Holy Spirit, who is called both the fire and the light of the Lord's countenance: light, as we said above: The light of thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us. What, then, is this signed light, if not that of the spiritual seal, in which believers, it says, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise?

150. Fire from the Divine Countenance and the Day of Judgment

And just as light is of the divine countenance, so also fire flashes forth from the countenance of God; for it is written: A fire shall burn in his sight. For the grace of the day of judgment shines forth beforehand, so that acquittal may follow, which rewards the obedience of the saints. O the great abundance of the Scriptures, which no human intellect can comprehend! O the greatest sign of the divine unity! For how many things are signified by these two verses!

151. The Word of Life and the Spirit of Life

We have said that the Father is light, the Son is light, the Holy Spirit is light: let us also receive that the Father is life, the Son is life, the Holy Spirit is life. For John said: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life: and the life was manifested, and we have seen and we bear witness and declare unto you the life, which was with the Father. And he said "the Word of life" and "life"; so that he might signify both the Father as life and the Son. For what is the Word of life, if not the Word of God? And by this both God and the Word of God are life. And just as he is called the Word of life, so also the Spirit of life. For it is written: And the Spirit of life was in the wheels.

Thus, just as the Word of life is life, so also the Spirit of life is life.

152. The Son as the Fountain of the Holy Spirit

Understand now that, just as the Father is the fountain of life, so also many have recorded the Son as signified by the fountain of life; because with thee, it says, almighty God, thy Son is the fountain of life, that is, the fountain of the Holy Spirit; since the Spirit is life, as the Lord says: The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and life, since where the Spirit is, there is life also: and where life is, there also is the Holy Spirit.

153. Objections That the Father Alone Is the Fountain

Many, however, in this passage wish only the Father to be signified by "fountain," although they see what Scripture has recorded: With thee, it says, is the fountain of life, that is, with the Father is the Son; since the Word was with God, which was in the beginning, and was with God.

154. The Holy Spirit as Living Water

But whether one understand the Father or the Son to be the fountain in this passage; we understand by "fountain" surely not that water which is a creature, but that of the divine grace, that is, of the Holy Spirit; for he himself is living water. For this reason the Lord says: If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

155. The Soul's Thirst for the Water of Grace

This water the soul of David thirsted for. It is the fountain of these waters that the hart desires, not thirsting for the venom of serpents. For living is the water of spiritual grace, in that it purifies the inner parts of the mind, and washes away every sin of the soul, and cleanses the error of hidden things.

156. Answering an Objection from the Fountain's Smallness

But lest anyone perhaps object as if to the smallness of the Spirit, and from this wish to make a certain distance of magnitude, on the ground that water seems to be but a small portion of the fountain: although examples drawn from creatures seem by no means fitting to be applied to divinity; nevertheless, lest they should draw any prejudice even from this comparison with a creature, let them learn that not only water, but also a river, is called the Holy Spirit, according to what is read: Rivers of living water shall flow from his belly. But this he said of the Spirit, whom they that should believe in him were about to receive.

157. The Spirit as the River That Never Fails

The Holy Spirit, therefore, is a river, and the greatest river, which, according to the Hebrews, flowed from Jesus upon the earth, as we have received it prophesied by the mouth of Isaiah. Great is this river, which flows always, and never fails. And not only a river, but also a rushing torrent of overflowing and redounding greatness, as David also said: For the rushing of the river makes glad the city of God.

158. The River of the Spirit Among the Heavenly Powers

For that city, the heavenly Jerusalem, is not washed by the course of any earthly river: but that Holy Spirit, proceeding from the fountain of life, of whom we are satisfied by a brief draught, seems to flow forth more abundantly among those heavenly Thrones, Dominations, and Powers, Angels and Archangels, welling with the full course of the seven spiritual virtues. For if a river, poured out above its raised banks, overflows, how much more does the Spirit, surpassing all creation, while touching the rest, as it were the lower fields of our mind, gladden that heavenly nature of creatures with a still more abundant richness of sanctification!

159. The Sevenfold Gifts of the Spirit

Nor should it move you that here he said rivers, or elsewhere seven spirits; for by these sanctifications of the seven spiritual gifts, as Isaiah said, the fulness of the virtues is signified: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of knowledge and of godliness, the spirit of the fear of God. One river, therefore, but many channels of spiritual gifts. This river, then, goes forth from the fountain of life.

160. One Substance of Fountain and River

Nor again should you here twist your understanding to lower things, because there seems to be some diversity between the fountain and the river; and yet the divine Scripture has looked to all things, lest the weakness of human capacity should be constrained by the poverty of expressions. Set before yourself, if you will, any river whatever; it is from a fountain, yet it is of one nature, one splendor and grace. Say too, then, that the Holy Spirit is of one substance with the Son of God and God the Father, of one brightness and glory. I will take a faithful summary from the unity of power, and I will not fear any question about diversity of greatness. For in this too Scripture has provided for us; for the Son of God says: Whoever drinks of the water which I shall give him, it shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life. This fountain assuredly is spiritual grace, a river proceeding from the living fountain.

The Holy Spirit, therefore, is also the fountain of life.

161. Christ as the Fountain and River of Life

You observe, then, that from the words of the divine speech the unity of majesty is signified, and that Christ cannot be denied to be the fountain even by the faithless; since the Spirit also is called a fountain. And just as the Spirit is called a river, so also the Father said: Behold, I run down upon you like a river of peace, and like an overflowing torrent bringing the glory of the nations. But who would doubt that the Son of God is the river of life, from whom the rivers of eternal life flowed forth?

162. Guarding the Water of Grace from Loss

Good water, therefore, is spiritual grace: who will give this fountain to my breast? Let it spring up in me; let the bestower of eternal life flow in me. Let this fountain overflow in us, not flow away. For wisdom says: Drink water from your own vessels, and from the fountains of your own wells, and let your waters overflow in your streets. How shall I keep this water, lest it flow away, lest it slip away? How shall I preserve my vessel, lest some crack of sin penetrating it, the moisture of eternal life trickle out? Teach us, Lord Jesus, teach us as you taught your apostles, saying: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where rust and moth destroy, and where thieves dig through and steal.

163. The Thief as the Unclean Spirit

He signifies of course that the thief is the unclean spirit, who cannot creep upon those walking in the light of good works: but in the darkness of worldly desires, and among the enticements of earthly pleasures, if he has caught anyone, he strips him of every flower of eternal virtue. And therefore the Lord says: Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroys, and where thieves do not dig through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

164. Arius and Photinus as the Moth That Gnaws Faith

Our rust is wantonness, our rust is lust, our rust is luxury, which overspread the keen edge of the mind with the filth of disgraceful deeds. Our moth again is Arius, our moth is Photinus, who tear the holy garment of the Church with their impiety; and, desiring to separate the undivided unity of the divine power, gnaw at the precious veil of faith with sacrilegious bite. The water is poured out, if Arius has pressed in his tooth: it flows away, if Photinus has fixed his sting in anyone's vessel. We are a vile creation, we quickly feel our faults. But no one says to the potter: Why have you made me thus? For although our vessel is vile, yet one is unto honor, another unto dishonor. Do not, therefore, open your cistern, do not dig it with vices and crimes, lest anyone say: He has opened a pit, and dug it out: and has fallen into the ditch which he made.

165. Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well

If you seek Jesus, forsake the broken cisterns; for Christ was accustomed to sit not at a cistern, but at a well. There that Samaritan woman who believed, who desired to draw water, found him. Although you ought to come in the morning, yet even if you come later, even at the sixth hour you will find Jesus wearied from his journey. He was wearied, but on your account; because he sought you long, your unbelief for so long wearied him. Yet he is not offended, if only you come: he asks to drink, being about to give. But he drinks not the water of a passing stream, but your salvation: he drinks your affection, he drinks the cup, that is, that passion which redeems your sins; that you might quench the thirst of this world with the blood of the sacred drink.

166. Wells and Cisterns of the Patriarchs

Thus Abraham deserved God after he dug a well. Thus Isaac, while walking to a well, received as his wife her who came, in a type of the Church. The faithful one goes to the well, the unfaithful to the cistern. Finally, Rebecca too, as we read, found her suitor at the fountain, and the harlots washed themselves in blood in the cistern of Jezebel.

1. The Trinity at the Creation of the World

Although in the first book it has been made clear by the reading of ancient history, that even in the very judges of the ancient Jews the sevenfold grace of the Spirit shone forth, and through the Holy Spirit the hidden mysteries of the heavenly sacraments were revealed, which Moses did not fail to know as eternal. Indeed, straightway in the very beginning of the world, nay before the beginning, he joined with God him whom he recognized as everlasting before the beginning of the world. For if anyone attends carefully, he will recognize both the Father in the beginning, and the Son, and the Spirit. For of the Father it is written: In the beginning God made heaven and earth. Of the Spirit it is said: The Spirit was borne over the waters. And well is the figure of baptism marked at the outset of creation, by which creation was to be cleansed.

It is also read of the Son, that he it is who divided between the light and the darkness; for one is the God the Father who says, and one the Lord Jesus who does.

2. Let Us Make Man in Our Image

But lest you again think either that he who commands is arrogant, or that he who obeys is made base; the Father confesses the Son equal to himself by the unity of work, saying: Let us make man according to our image and likeness. For image and operation and common likeness—what else do they signify but the unity of the same majesty?

3. The Mutual Work and Word of Father and Son

Yet, that you may more fully recognize the equality of the Father and the Son, just as the Father said and the Son made; so also the Father works, and the Son says. The Father works, as it is written: My Father works even until now. You have it said to the Son: Say the word, and he shall be healed. And the Son says to the Father: I will that where I am, they also may be with me. The Father made what the Son said.

4. Abraham's Vision of the Three and the One

But neither was Abraham ignorant of the Holy Spirit: indeed he saw three, and worshiped one; because one is God, one is Lord, and one is Spirit. And therefore there is unity of honor; because there is unity of power.

5. Samson and the Spirit of the Lord

And why should I speak of individuals? Samson, born by divine promise, had the Spirit accompanying him; for thus we read: Because the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to accompany him in the camps (Judges XIII, 25). And so, foreseeing the future sacrament, he sought a wife from among aliens: which his father and mother, as it is written, did not know, because it was of the Lord. And deservedly he was held stronger than the rest, because the Spirit of the Lord directed him; under whose guidance, now alone he put to flight the peoples of the aliens, now he tore apart the lion with his hands, invulnerable in its bite, unconquerable in strength. Would that he had been as cautious to preserve grace, as he was strong to overcome the beast!

6. The Mystery of Samson's Honey from the Lion

And perhaps this was not only a miracle of power, but also a mystery of wisdom, an oracle of prophecy. For it does not seem idle that, when he was going toward the mystery of marriage, a roaring lion met him, which he tore apart with his hands, in whose body, when he was about to obtain his desired marriage, he found a swarm of bees, and took honey from its mouth, which he gave to his father and mother to eat. The people of the nations had honey, they who believed: that people, which before was of savagery, is now Christ's.

7. The Three-Day Mystery of Samson's Riddle

Nor is that question itself devoid of mysteries, which he proposed to his companions, saying: Out of the eater came forth food, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. Indeed it was so mystical, that its revelation was sought for three days, which could not be revealed except through the faith of the Church, on the seventh day, when the time of the Law was completed, after the Lord's passion. For thus you have it, that the apostles did not understand for this reason, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

8. Grace from Offense, Life from Death

What, they say, is sweeter than honey, and what stronger than a lion? To which he answered: If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle (Judges XIV, 18). O divine mystery! O manifest sacrament! We have escaped the destroyer, we have conquered the powerful one. There now is the food of life, where before was the wretched famine of death. Dangers are turned into salvation, bitterness into sweetness. Grace has proceeded from offense, power from weakness, life from death.

9. The Honey of Wisdom Found in the Lion

Yet there are those who think, on the contrary, that the marriage could not have been founded except by the slaying of the lion of the tribe of Judah: and therefore in his body, that is, of the Church, bees were found, which store up the honey of wisdom; because after the Lord's passion the apostles believed more fully. This lion, then, Samson, as it were a Jew, slew, but in it he found honey, as it were in a figure of the inheritance to be redeemed; that the remnant might be saved according to the election of grace.

10. Samson at Ascalon and the Prize of Wisdom

And the Spirit of the Lord, it says, fell upon him, and he went down to Ascalon, and struck down thirty men from there (Judges XIV, 19, 20). For he who discerned the mysteries could not fail to hold the victory. So they receive, in their robes, the prize of wisdom, the mark of conduct, who resolve and announce the riddle.

11. The Foxes That Destroy the Vines

Again here other mysteries arise, in that his wife is taken away; and therefore the foxes burn up the sheaves of the aliens. For it is his custom to deceive by his cunning those who contend against the divine sacraments. Whence again it is said in the Song of Songs: Take us the little foxes that destroy the vines, that our vines may flourish. Well did he say "little"; because they could not destroy the greater vines, although even to the strong the devil is small.

12. Samson's Strength and the Grace of the Nazarite

So then he (that we may make a summary of the history; for the full unfolding of the whole reading must be reserved for its proper time) was unconquered, so long as he had spiritual grace, like that people of God, that people chosen by the Lord, that Nazarite in the Law. Samson, then, was unconquered, and so unconquerable, that with the jawbone of an ass he struck down a thousand men: so full of heavenly grace, that even, thirsting, he found water in the jawbone of an ass; whether you refer this to a miracle, or turn it to a mystery, that in the humility of the gentile people there might be both rest and triumph. According to that which is written: Whoever strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other also. For through this patience under injuries, which the sacraments of baptism teach, we triumph over certain stings of wrath; that, death having been undergone, we may attain the rest of resurrection.

13. The Spirit Departs and Samson Is Overcome

Was that then Samson, who broke ropes woven with sinews, who dissolved new cords as if they were soft threads? Was that Samson, who felt no bonds when his locks were fastened tight to a driven stake, so long as he had spiritual grace? He, I say, after the Spirit of God departed from him, greatly changed from that Samson, who returned clad in the spoils of the Philistines, degenerate in his strength upon a woman's knees, was seized and captured, and his sacred hair was shorn?

14. The Nazarite's Hairs as a Figure of the Church

Did then the hairs of his head have so much importance, that while they remained, his unconquered strength endured: but with his head shorn, all the man's strength was suddenly loosed? It is not so, that we should think so great a power resides in bodily hairs. There are certain hairs of religion and faith: hairs of the Nazarite, perfect in the Law, consecrated in frugality and abstinence, with which that Church, prefigured in the woman who had poured oil upon the Lord's feet, wiped away the footprints of the heavenly Word; for then she knew Christ also according to the flesh. These, clearly, are the hairs of which it is said: Your hair is as flocks of goats; springing from that head of which it is said: The head of the man is Christ; and elsewhere: His head is as the finest gold, and his locks are black as the raven. And good ships of Tharshish are made from fir, which float upon the waves of the world, and afford a safe rowing of salvation.

15. The Numbered Hairs of the Gospel

Whence also in the Gospel our Lord, signifying that there are certain visible hairs of the head and certain intelligible ones, says: But even the hairs of your head are all numbered, signifying evidently the deeds of spiritual virtues; for God does not care about our hairs. Although it would not be absurd to think this too, that in view of the divine majesty nothing can be hidden from Him.

16. The Reward of Good Works, Concluding the Mystery

But what does it profit me if God Himself knows all my hairs? This redounds to my benefit and profits me, if the ever-watchful witness of good works grants the reward of eternal glory. Finally, Samson himself too, declaring that these hairs are not bodily but intelligible, says: And if I be shorn, my strength will depart from me (Judges XVI, 17). This concerning the mystery: now let us consider the order of the reading.

17. The Spirit of the Lord Accompanies and Departs Samson

Above you have that The Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to accompany him (Judges XIII, 24, 25). Below it says: And the Spirit of the Lord directed him (Judges XIV, 6). Likewise it says: If I be shorn, my strength will depart from me (Judges XVI, 17). After he was shorn, see what Scripture says: The Lord, it says, departed from him.

18. The Spirit and the Son Are One

You see, then, that He who was accompanying him, He Himself departed. The same, then, is the Lord who is the Spirit of the Lord, that is, He called the Spirit of God Himself Lord, just as the Apostle also says: Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. You have, then, the Lord also called the Holy Spirit; for the Holy Spirit and the Son are not one and one, but one.

19. Father, Son, and Spirit Alike Called Virtue

In this passage too He said virtue, and signified the Spirit. For as the Father is virtue, so also the Son is virtue, and the Holy Spirit is virtue. Of the Son you have read that Christ is the virtue of God, and the wisdom of God. We read also that the Father is virtue, as it is written: You shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the virtue of God. Here indeed He called the Father virtue, at whose right hand the Son sits, as you have: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand. The Lord Himself also named the Holy Spirit virtue, saying: You shall receive virtue, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

20. The One Counsel of Father, Son, and Spirit

For the Spirit Himself is virtue, because you have read: The Spirit of counsel and of virtue. And as the Son is the Angel of great counsel, so also the Spirit is of counsel, that you may know the counsel of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to be one. A counsel not concerning certain uncertain matters, but foreknown and settled ones.

21. The Spirit as Arbiter of the Counsel of Baptism

Know also from this that the Spirit is the arbiter of the divine counsel. For since we have taught above that the Holy Spirit is the arbiter of baptism, and we have read that baptism is the counsel of God, as you have: But the Pharisees despised the counsel of God concerning themselves, not being baptized by him; it is plainly clear, since baptism cannot exist without the Spirit, that neither can the counsel of God exist without the Spirit.

22. The Promised Spirit Clothed with Virtue from on High

And that we may know more fully that the Spirit is virtue, we ought to know that He Himself is the one promised, when the Lord said: I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh. He, then, who is promised to us, He is virtue; just as also in the Gospel the same Son of God declared, saying: And I send the promise of my Father upon you, but sit in the city, until you are clothed with virtue from on high.

23. The Spirit's Descent as a Mighty Wind

And to such an extent does the evangelist signify that the Holy Spirit is virtue, that St. Luke also recorded that He descended with great force, saying: And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind force being borne.

24. The Spirit's Descent Compared to Christ's Coming

But lest you think again that this is to be turned toward sensible and corporeal things, understand that the Spirit descended in the same manner as Christ is to descend. For He too will descend with virtue, as you have: They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, in great virtue and majesty.

25. One Work and Kingdom of Father, Son, and Spirit

For how is it not one and the same virtue and power; since there is one work, one judgment, one temple, one vivification, one sanctification, one kingdom also, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit?

26. The Promise of the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth

Let them say, then, in what respect they judge there is dissimilarity of divine work. Since, just as it is life to know the Father and the Son, as the Lord Himself declared, saying: Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; so also it is life to know the Holy Spirit. For the Lord says: If you love me, keep my commandments; and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive; because it does not see Him, nor know Him: but you know Him, because He abides with you, and is in you.

27. The World's Lack of Eternal Life without the Spirit

Therefore the world did not have eternal life, because it had not received the Spirit: but where the Spirit is, there is eternal life: for He Himself is the Spirit, the worker of eternal life. Whence I wonder why the Arians raise a question about the only and true God. For as it is eternal life to know the only and true God, so it is eternal life to know Jesus Christ, so it is eternal life to know the Holy Spirit: whom the world does not see, just as it does not see the Father: whom it does not know, just as it does not know the Son. But he who is not of this world has eternal life, and the Spirit abides with him forever, who is the light of eternal life.

28. Equal Honor for the Spirit in Giving Eternal Life

Therefore if the knowledge of the only true God confers what the knowledge of the Son and the Spirit confers, why do you separate the Son and the Spirit from the honor of the true God, since you do not separate them from the greatness of the benefit? For either you must believe that this greatest gift belongs to the true divinity alone, and you will confess the sole and true divinity of the Father as also of the Son and the Spirit; or if you say that he who is not true God can also confer eternal life, you will fall into seeming to derogate more from the Father, whose work you do not think to be the special property of the true divinity alone, but to be classed among the works of a creature.

29. To Give Life Belongs to Eternal Majesty

But what wonder is it if the Spirit is the worker of life, who gives life as the Father gives life, gives life as the Son gives life? But who would deny that to give life belongs to eternal majesty? For it is written: Give life to your servant. He, then, who is given life, is a servant, that is, man, who did not have life before, but received it that he might have it.

30. The Letter Kills but the Spirit Gives Life

Let us see, then, whether the Spirit is given life, or Himself gives life. But it is written: The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Therefore the Spirit gives life.

31. The Unity of Vivification in Father, Son, and Spirit

But that you may understand that the vivification of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is not divided, understand that there is also a unity of vivification; since God Himself gives life through the Spirit; for Paul said: He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit dwelling in you.

32. The Holy Spirit as Creator With the Father and Son

Who indeed can doubt that the Holy Spirit gives life to all things, since He Himself, like the Father and the Son, is the creator of all, nor is Almighty God the Father understood to have worked anything except with the Holy Spirit; since also in the beginning of creation the Spirit was borne over the water?

33. The World's Grace Depends on the Spirit's Work

Thus, while the Spirit was being borne above, there was no grace of creation: but after the creature of this world also received the operation of the Spirit, it earned all that grace and beauty with which the world shone. Finally, the Prophet declared that without the Holy Spirit the grace of the universe cannot remain, saying: You will take away their spirit, and they will fail, and return to their dust. Send forth your Spirit, and they will be created, and you will renew the whole face of the earth. He taught, then, not only that no creature can stand without the Spirit, but also that the Spirit is the creator of all creation.

34. The Earth's Creation and Renewal Alike the Spirit's Work

And who would deny that it is the work of the Holy Spirit that the earth was created, whose work it is that it is renewed? For if they wish to deny that it was created through the Spirit; since they cannot deny that it is renewed through the Spirit, they will thus be defending a better operation of the Holy Spirit than of the Father and the Son, whom they wish to separate: which is abhorrent to the truth; for there is no doubt that the renewed earth is better than the created earth. Or if the Father and the Son first made the earth without the operation of the Holy Spirit, and afterward the operation of the Holy Spirit was joined to it; it will seem that what was made needed the help of what was added afterward. But far be it from anyone to suppose this, that the divine operation should be believed to have that variation of the creator which the Manichaean introduces.

35. The Heavens Established by the Spirit's Virtue

Or do we think that the substance of the earth exists without the work of the Holy Spirit, without whose work not even the vaults of the heavens subsist? For it is written: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their virtue by the Spirit of His mouth. Note what it says: that all the virtue of the heavens is to be referred to the Spirit. For He who was borne above before the earth was made, how would He have rested from work when the earth was being made?

36. Pagan Poets Unknowingly Echo the Spirit's Work in Creation

The Gentiles, following our own through a kind of shadow, because they could not draw in the truth of the Spirit; put into their verses that a spirit within nourishes the heaven and the earth, and the globes of the moon and the shining stars. Do they, then, not deny that the virtue of creation subsists through spirit; and shall we who have read deny it? But you think that a spirit of breath flatile was designated by them. If they declared a breathing spirit to be the author of all things, do we doubt that the Spirit of God is the creator of all things?

37. The Spirit's Work in the Angels and the Incarnation

But why do I linger over things foreign to us? Let them receive an evident proof that nothing can be denied to have been wrought by the Holy Spirit, nor can it be doubted concerning the Angels, nor the Archangels, nor the Thrones, nor the Dominations, that they subsist by His operation; since even the Lord Himself according to the flesh, whom angels served, was begotten by the Spirit coming upon the Virgin; as also according to Matthew the angel said to Joseph: Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife; for that which is born in her is of the Holy Spirit. And according to Luke he said to Mary: The Holy Spirit shall come upon you.

38. The Virgin's Childbearing as the Spirit's Work

The work of the Spirit, then, is the Virgin's childbearing. The work of the Spirit is the fruit of the womb, according to what is written: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. The work of the Spirit is the flower of the root: that flower, I say, of which it was well prophesied: A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise from his root. The root of Jesse is the family of the Jewish patriarchs, the rod is Mary, the flower of Mary is Christ; who, about to scatter the good odor of faith over the whole world, sprouted from the virginal womb, as He Himself said: I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys.

39. The Flower of Jesse Undiminished on the Cross

A flower, even when cut, keeps its scent, and when crushed, gathers it, and does not lose it when plucked; so too the Lord Jesus, on that gibbet of the cross, neither withered when crushed, nor vanished when plucked; and when pierced by the thrust of the spear, He bloomed the more beautiful with the sacred hue of His poured-out blood, unable Himself to die, and breathing out for the dead the gift of eternal life. In Him, therefore, the Holy Spirit rested on the flower of the royal rod.

40. The Good Rod as the Flesh of the Lord

The good rod, as some think, is the flesh of the Lord, which, raising itself from the earthly root to the heights above, carried about the world the fragrant fruits of sacred religion, pouring forth upon the heavenly altars the mysteries of the divine generation, and grace.

41. The Spirit as Author of Christ's Generation

We cannot, then, doubt the Spirit to be a creator, whom we know to be the author of the Lord's incarnation. For who could doubt, when at the beginning of the Gospel you have that Christ's generation was thus: When Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit?

42. Of the Holy Spirit: Substance and Power Distinguished

For although most copies have "of the Spirit," yet the Greek, whence the Latins translated, said ἐκ Πνεύματος ἁγίου, that is, "of the Holy Spirit." For that which is of someone is either of his substance, or of his power. Of substance, as the Son, who says: I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, as the Spirit, who proceeds from the Father; of whom the Son says: He will glorify me; because He will receive of mine. Of power, however, as this: One God the Father, of whom are all things.

43. Mary's Conception From the Spirit's Power, Not Substance

How then did Mary have in her womb from the Holy Spirit? If as it were from substance: was the Spirit then converted into flesh and bones? Certainly not. If the Virgin conceived as it were from his operation and power, who would deny the Spirit to be creator?

44. Job's Witness That the Divine Spirit Made Him

What of the fact that Job also clearly shows the Spirit to be his creator, saying: The divine Spirit, who made me? And in one verse he has shown him to be both divine and creator. If therefore the Spirit is creator, he is certainly not a creature; for the Apostle distinguished creature from creator, saying: They served the creature rather than the creator.

45. Serving the Creator Rather Than the Creature

At the same time he admonishes that the creator must be served, condemning those who serve the creature, when we owe service to the creator. And since he knew the Spirit to be creator, he teaches that he must be served, saying: Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision; for we are the circumcision, who serve the Spirit of God.

46. The Greek Text Confirms Serving the Spirit of God

But if anyone contends about the variety of the Latin codices, some of which the faithless have falsified, let him inspect the Greek codices, and observe that there it is written: οἱ Πνεύματι Θεοῦ λατρεύοντες, which the Latin interprets: who serve the Spirit of God.

47. The Spirit's Service as Proof of His Divinity

Therefore since the same Apostle says the Spirit must be served, he who asserts that not the creature but the creator must be served, thereby clearly shows the Holy Spirit himself also to be creator, and to be venerated in the honor of eternal divinity; because it is written: You shall adore the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve.

48. The Objection From Amos on a Created Spirit

Nor does it escape me that the heretics have been accustomed to object that the Holy Spirit seems to be created for this reason, that many of them, to construct an argument for their impiety, adopt that saying which Amos spoke of the blowing of the winds, as the prophetic speech itself declares. For thus you have it: Behold I who confirm the thunder, and create the spirit, and announce among men his Christ, making light and mist, and ascending upon the heights, the Lord God Almighty is his name.

49. Esdras and the Question of a Created Spirit

If they make a question of this, that he said the spirit is created, because Esdras has taught us that the spirit is created, saying in the fourth book: And on the second day again you created the spirit of the firmament; yet let us adhere to the matter proposed, namely to what Amos said—does not the sequence of the words clearly testify that the prophet spoke of the creature of this world?

50. Thunder Before Spirit Signals a Worldly Sense

Finally, thus he began: I the Lord confirming the thunder, and creating the spirit. Let the very order teach us; for if he had wished to speak of the Holy Spirit, he certainly would not have set thunder before it. For thunders are not more ancient than the Holy Spirit: although the impious are wicked, yet they do not dare to say this. Then, since we see the subject matter to be about light and mist, is it not manifest that it must be understood as spoken of the creature of the world? For when certain storms of this world occur, we know by daily use and example that thunders precede, the blowing of winds follows, the sky darkens with mists, light is poured forth out of darkness. For indeed the blowing of winds is also called spirit, as it is written: Fire and brimstone, and the spirit of storm.

51. Wisdom's 'The Lord Created Me' and a Single Incarnation

And that you might know he meant this spirit, he says: Confirming the thunder, and creating the spirit; because these things are frequently created, when they occur. But the Holy Spirit is eternal; and if anyone dares to say he is created, he still cannot say that he is created daily, like the gusts of winds. Finally, Wisdom herself, speaking according to the sacrament of the body she assumed, says: The Lord created me. Although she prophesied things to come, yet because the coming of the Lord Savior was predestined, she did not say, creates me, but created, lest they should believe that the body of Jesus was to be generated frequently rather than once, from the Virgin Mary.

52. The Holy Spirit's Eternity Against Daily Creation

And this therefore, which the prophet declared as it were a daily operation of God in the confirming of the thunder, and in the creation of the spirit, it is unlawful to understand as if we should estimate any such thing of the Holy Spirit, whom even the impious themselves cannot deny to exist before the ages; whence also we testify with pious assertion that he always exists, and always remains. For he who was borne above the waters before the world cannot be seen to have begun after the world; nor is it lawful to suppose that there are many Holy Spirits, as if generated by a sort of daily generation. Far be it that anyone should contaminate himself with such impiety, as to say that the Holy Spirit is frequently created, or ever created. For why he should seem to be frequently created, I do not understand; unless perhaps they also believe he dies frequently, and is frequently created. But how can the Spirit of life die?

Therefore if he cannot die, there is no reason why he should need to be created more often.

53. Against a Spirit That Is Poured Back and Changes

But those who think otherwise fall back into that sacrilege, so as not to distinguish the Holy Spirit, who think that the uttered Word returns into the Father, that the uttered Spirit is poured back into God; so that there is a pouring-back of one being, and a certain alternation of a being often changing itself into various forms: whereas the distinction of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ever remaining and unchangeable, keeps the unity of its own power.

54. The Amos Prophecy Applied to Christ's Incarnation

If, however, anyone thinks the prophetic saying must be diverted to an interpretation about the Holy Spirit, because it has: Announcing among men his Christ; he will more easily divert it to be spoken of the mystery of the Lord's incarnation. For if you are moved because he said spirit, and therefore do not think this should be diverted to the mystery of the assumption of humanity; pursue the Scriptures, and you will find it agrees excellently with Christ, of whom it is well fitting to be reckoned that he confirmed the thunders by his coming—that is, the force and sound of the heavenly Scriptures, by whose thunder, as it were, our minds are struck with astonishment, that we may learn to fear, and pay reverence to the heavenly oracles.

55. Sons of Thunder and the Father's Voice

Finally, in the Gospel the brothers of the Lord were called sons of thunder; and when the voice of the Father was made, saying to the Son: I have glorified, and I will glorify again; the Jews said: It thundered to him. For although they could not draw the grace of the truth, yet they confessed unwillingly, and, ignorant, spoke a mystery; because a great testimony of the Father concerning the Son resounded. In the book of Job also Scripture says: Who knows when he will make the firmament of his thunder? Certainly if this pertained to the thunders of celestial disturbances, he would have said not that they would be made firm, but that they had been made.

56. Thunder as the Lord's Words, Spirit as His Soul

Therefore he referred the thunders to the words of the Lord, whose sound went out into all the earth: but by spirit in this passage we understand the soul, which he assumed, rational and complete; because Scripture frequently designates the soul of man by the term spirit, as you have: Who creates the spirit of man within him. Whence also the Lord, signifying his soul by the appellation of spirit, said: Into your hands I commend my spirit.

57. Christ Announced at Baptism, Transfiguration, and Passion

And that you might know that he recorded the descent of the Lord Jesus, he added that he would announce among men his Christ; for he announced it at the baptism, saying: You are my most beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. He announced it on the mountain, saying: This is my beloved Son, hear him. He announced it in the passion, when the sun withdrew, the seas and lands trembled. He announced it in the centurion, who said: Truly this was the Son of God.

58. This Passage Read as Breath or as the Lord's Body

We ought therefore to refer this whole passage either to the simple understanding of this breath which is drawn in living, or to the mystery of the Lord's body; for if he had here said the Holy Spirit is created, Scripture certainly could have declared this elsewhere too, just as concerning the Son of God we frequently read that according to the flesh he was both made and created.

59. Father, Spirit, and Son Alike Created the Incarnation

Whose majesty, however, it is fitting for us to consider in this very fact, that he took on flesh for us; so that we may see divine power in the very assumption of the body. For indeed, just as we read that the Father created the sacrament of the Lord's incarnation, the Spirit also created it; so likewise we read that Christ himself also created his own body: for the Father created, according to what is written: The Lord created me; and elsewhere: God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the Law. The Spirit also created that whole mystery, according to what we read, that Mary was found to be with child in the womb from the Holy Spirit.

60. Wisdom's House as Proof the Spirit Is No Creature

You have it that the Father created, the Spirit also created: accept also that the Son of God created, Solomon saying: Wisdom has built herself a house. Therefore the Holy Spirit, who created the sacrament of the Lord's incarnation, which is above all creatures, how can he be a creature?

61. The Spirit's Creative Work in the Sacrament of Grace

Concerning the general case, however, we have shown above that according to the flesh our Holy Spirit is creator in the outward man: now let us show that he is our creator also according to the sacrament of grace. And just as the Father creates, so too the Son creates, so too the Holy Spirit creates, as we read, Paul saying: For it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast; for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.

62. The Son's Creative Power to Become Sons of God

Therefore the Father creates unto good works: the Son also creates; because it is written: But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become sons of God, to those who believe in his name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

63. Christ's Teaching on Being Born of the Spirit

Likewise the Lord himself testifies that we are reborn of the Spirit according to grace, saying: That which is born of the flesh is flesh; because it is born of the flesh: and that which is born of the spirit is spirit; because God is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you: You must be born again. The Spirit blows where it wills, and you hear its voice; but you do not know from where it comes, or where it goes; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

64. To Deny the Spirit Is to Deny the Gift

It is clear, therefore, that the Holy Spirit is also the author of spiritual generation; because we are created according to God, that we may be sons of God. Therefore, since he has taken us up into his kingdom by the adoption of sacred regeneration, shall we deny him what is his own? He has made us heirs of heavenly regeneration; do we claim the inheritance, but reject the author? But the benefit cannot remain, when the author is excluded; nor can there be an author without a gift, nor a gift without an author. If you claim the grace, believe the power: if you refute the power, do not seek the grace. He who denied the Spirit at once denied also the gift. For if the author is base, how can the gifts be precious? Why do we ourselves grudge our own gifts, diminish hope, repudiate dignity, deny the Comforter?

65. Reborn According to the Spirit and Not the Flesh

But we cannot deny him. For far be it that we should deny what is greatest, since the Apostle says: But you, brothers, are children of promise according to Isaac: but as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit. Again, indeed, it is understood from what precedes, he who was born according to the Spirit. He therefore who is born according to the Spirit is born according to God. But we are reborn when we are renewed in the inward disposition, and put off the oldness of the outward man. And therefore the Apostle again says: But be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who is created according to God in righteousness and true holiness. Let them hear how Scripture has signified the unity of the divine operation. He who is renewed in the spirit of the mind puts on the new man, who is created according to God.

66. The Spirit as Author of the Heavenly Man

This more excellent regeneration, therefore, is the work of the Holy Spirit; and the author of this new man, who is created in the image of God, is the Spirit: whom no one would doubt to be better than this outward man of ours. Since the Apostle indeed signified one man to be heavenly, another earthly, saying: As is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly.

67. Job's Nostrils and the Senses of the Inner Man

Therefore since spiritual grace makes heavenly, we ought also to observe by good sense what it can create that is earthly, though we lack examples. For holy Job says elsewhere: The Lord lives, who thus judges me; and the Almighty, who has brought my soul to bitterness: yet the divine Spirit, who is in my nostrils. Certainly here he did not signify by spirit this vital breath and bodily breathing, but here he signifies the nostrils of his inward man, by which he perceived the odor of eternal life, and drew in the grace of the heavenly ointment by a certain twofold sense.

68. The Bride's Fragrance and the Body's Spiritual Members

For there are spiritual nostrils, as we read, which the Bride of the Word has, to whom it is said: And the odor of thy nostrils; and elsewhere: The Lord smelled an odor of sweetness. There are therefore certain members of the interior man, whose hands are reckoned in action, ears in hearing, feet in a certain progress of good work. And so from these offices, as it were, we gather certain figures of members; for it does not befit us to think anything according to carnal things concerning the interior man.

69. Against a Corporeal Reading of God's Hand and Finger

And there are some who think God to be formed corporeally, when they read of his hand or his finger; nor do they notice that these things were not written on account of a bodily form, since in the divinity there are neither members nor parts: but they were set forth on account of the unity of the divinity, so that we might believe it is impossible for either the Son or the Holy Spirit to be separated from God the Father; since the fullness of the divinity dwells, as it were corporeally, in the substance of the Trinity. For this reason therefore the Son also is called the right hand of the Father, as it is read: The right hand of the Lord has wrought strength, the right hand of the Lord has exalted me.

70. Claiming Ministry or Fellowship From a Single Syllable

But what wonder is it if senseless men make a question of words, when they make one even of syllables? For there are those who think a distinction must be made on this ground, that they say God is to be preached "in the Spirit," not "with the Spirit"; and from a single syllable, or a certain usage, they think the very moment of the divinity is to be reckoned, arguing that if they think God must be preached "in the Spirit," they seem to signify the ministry of the Holy Spirit; but if they say that the power or glory of God is "with the Spirit," they seem to designate a certain fellowship and communion of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

71. The Baptismal Formula Unites Father, Son, and Spirit

But who can separate what cannot be separated? Who can divide the fellowship which Christ has shown to be undivided? Go, he says, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Did he here change either word or syllable regarding the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit? Not at all: but he said, In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The same word sounds for the Spirit as for the Father and for himself. Whence no ministry of the Holy Spirit, but rather a fellowship of honor or of work, is understood when it is said "in the Spirit."

72. The Syllable Argument Applied Back to Father and Son

Consider also here that this prejudice of your opinion redounds upon the Father and the Son; for here he did not say: With the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; but in the name: and yet no ministry of the Trinity is expressed by this syllable, but power.

73. Paul's Precedent of Speaking In Christ

Finally, that you may know that the syllable does not prejudge the faith, but the faith commends the syllable, Paul too speaks "in Christ." Nor is Christ therefore lesser because Paul has spoken in Christ, as you have: Before God we speak in Christ. Just as the Apostle says that we speak in Christ, so it is that we speak in the Spirit; as the Apostle himself said: No one says "The Lord Jesus" except in the Holy Spirit. Therefore not subjection of the Holy Spirit is designated in this place, but the bond of grace.

74. More Examples of Being In Christ Jesus

And that you may know that the distinction is not a matter of the syllable, he also says elsewhere: And such indeed you were: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. How many examples can I bring forward from this! For it is written: You are all one in Christ Jesus; and elsewhere: Sanctified in Christ Jesus; and again: That we might be made the righteousness of God in him; and in another place: Lest they fall away from the chastity that is in Christ Jesus.

75. An Anticipated Objection About God the Father

But what am I doing? For while I say that it is written similarly of the Son as it is written of the Spirit, I fall the more into this: not that because it was written of the Son, it might seem said reverently of the Spirit; but that because the same thing was written of the Spirit, they might object that it was thereby derogated from the Son on account of the Spirit. For they say: Was it ever written of God the Father?

76. Scriptural Examples of Being In God the Father

But let them accept that it was said also of God the Father: In the Lord I will praise his word; and elsewhere: In God we shall do valiantly; and: In thee is my praise continually; and: In thy name we will rejoice; again elsewhere: That his works may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God; and Paul: In God who created all things; and again: Paul and Sylvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; and in the Gospel: I am in the Father, and the Father in me; and: The Father who abides in me. It is also written: He that glories, let him glory in the Lord; and elsewhere: But our life is hidden with Christ in God. Did he here confer more upon the Son than upon the Father, in saying that we are in God with Christ?

Or does our own condition claim more for itself than the grace of the Spirit; so that we can be with Christ, but the Holy Spirit cannot? And when Christ wishes to be with us, as he himself said: Father, those whom thou hast given me, I will that where I am, they also may be with me, would he disdain to be with the Spirit? It is also written: When you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus. Do we then gather together with the power of the Lord, and dare to say that the Lord Jesus is unwilling to gather with the Spirit, he who does not disdain to gather with us?

77. A Conjunction Cannot Effect Separation

The Apostle therefore thinks there is no distinction whether you use this syllable or that. For the syllable is one of conjunction, and conjunction does not effect separation; for if it divided, it would not be called conjunction.

78. Glory Ascribed In or With the Holy Spirit

What then moves you to say that glory is to God the Father, or to his Christ, that life, power, magnificence, might are "in the Holy Spirit," yet you refuse to say "with the Holy Spirit"? Or is it because you fear you might seem to associate the Spirit with the Father and the Son? But hear also what is written of the Spirit: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. And elsewhere God the Father says: And they shall worship thee, and shall pray in thee. God the Father says that we ought to pray in Christ; and do you think it derogates from the Spirit if the glory of Christ is said to be in him?

79. The Apostle's Desire to Be With Christ

Hear that the Apostle did not fear to claim for himself what you fear to confess concerning the Spirit; for he says: To be dissolved, and to be with Christ, is far better. With whom then the Apostle is, with him you deny the Spirit to be, through whom the Apostle merited to be with Christ.

80. Answering the Claim That In Implies Lesser Rank

What reason then is there that you should prefer to say "in the Spirit" rather than "with the Spirit" the glory of God or of Christ? Is it because if you say "in the Spirit," the Spirit is declared lesser than Christ? Although this is refutable, that you should make the Lord greater and lesser; yet since it is read: For he made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him; he is found most powerful in whom we, the lowliest, exist. So too elsewhere you have: For all things consist in him (Colos. I, 17), that is, in his power. Nor can those things which consist in him be compared to him; because they obtain their subsistence in order to consist, from his power.

81. Rejecting the Spirit as Source of the Father's Reign

Do you then wish God to reign "in the Spirit" in such a way that the power of the Spirit bestows upon God, as it were, the source and principle of reigning, like a certain fountain of substance? But this is impious. And therefore, that our forebears might affirm one power of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, they used to commemorate the glory of Christ as being "with the Spirit," in order to declare the undivided bond.

82. The Spirit's Inseparable Bond With the Son

For how is the Holy Spirit separated from the Son, when the Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are sons of God? And if sons, then heirs also: heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ. Who then is so mad as to sunder the everlasting conjunction of the Spirit and Christ; when the Spirit even joins together things disjoined, he through whom we are made joint heirs of Christ?

83. Glorified and Reigning Together With Christ Through the Spirit

If, however, he says, we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. If then we shall be glorified together with Christ through the Spirit, how do we refuse that the Spirit himself is glorified together with Christ? Do we sunder the life of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, when the Spirit says that we shall live together with the Son of God? For the Apostle says: But if we are dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with him; then elsewhere: For if we suffer with him, he says, we shall also live with him: and not only shall we live with him, but we shall also be glorified together; and not only shall we be glorified together, but we shall also reign together.

84. Scripture's Interchangeable Use of In and With

There is therefore no distinction in these syllables; for each syllable is one of conjunction. Finally, we often find in the Scriptures one used in place of the other, one being inserted and the other understood, as it is written: I will go into thy house with burnt offerings, that is, with holocausts; and elsewhere: He brought them out with silver and gold, that is, with silver and gold. Elsewhere too he says: Thou wilt not go out with our armies; in place of "with the armies." Since therefore there can be no calumny in the ordinary use of speech, and no calumny ought to be stirred up against the divinity from mere speech, it is necessary that belief unto righteousness be with the heart, and that confession unto salvation be made with the mouth from the faith of the heart. But those who do not believe with the heart weave calumny with words.

85. An Objection Distinguishing Matter, Instrument, and Place

Finally, similar too is that which they say constitutes a distinction, because it is written: But to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him: and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him. For they wish that when it is said "of him," matter is designated; when it is said "through him," a certain instrument of the work, or ministry, is declared; but when it is said "in him," either a place or a time is signified, in which all things appear to have been made.

86. Is the Son an Instrument Distinct From the Father

Thus they desire to prove a certain distinction of substance, as though eager to distinguish an instrument from its own operator or author, and a time or place from an instrument. Is the Son then alien in nature from the Father, because an instrument is alien from its own operator or author? Or is the Son alien from the Spirit, because a place or a time is separated from the kind of instrument?

87. Against Reducing the Son to a Mere Instrument

Compare now our assertions. They wish that from God, as though from the nature of God, matter should exist, just as if you should say that an ark was made of wood, a statue of stone: thus matter proceeded from God, and this same matter was, as it were, made through some instrument, through the Son; so that they declare the Son not so much an operator as the instrument of the work: and all things thus made "in the Spirit," as though made in some place or time: they attribute single things to single persons, and deny that all things belong to all in common.

88. All Things From, Through, and In Each Person

But we have shown that all things are so from God the Father, that God the Father has not lost the fact that all things are also through him and in him, nor are all things from him as though from matter: so too all things are through the Lord the Son, in such a way that he is not deprived of the fact that all things are from the Son, and all things are in him: and all things are so in the Spirit, that we teach that all things are also through the Spirit, and all things are of the Spirit.

89. Why These Terms Signify One Another

For these syllables, like those of which we spoke above, signify one another in turn. For the Apostle did not say: Of God are all things, and through the Son are all things, so as to signify a separable substance of the Father and the Son: but so as to teach, with an undivided distinction, that the Father is one and the Son another. These syllables therefore are not as though in conflict, but as allies and in concord; so that they often agree even to one and the same, as it is written: Because of him, and through him, and in him, are all things.

90. This Saying Was First Spoken of the Son

But if you truly consider whence it has been transferred, you will not doubt that it was said of the Son. For the Apostle says, according to the prophecy of Isaiah: Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? And he added: Because of him, and through him, and in him are all things. This Isaiah said of the maker of all things, as you have it: Who has measured the water with his hand, and the heaven with his palm, and the whole earth in his closed hand? Who has weighed the mountains in a balance, and the hills in a scale? Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?

91. Defining Of Him, Through Him, and In Him

And the Apostle added: Because of him, and through him, and in him are all things. What is "of him"? That the nature of all things is from his will, and he himself is the author of all things which have begun to be. What is "through him"? That through him the establishment and continuance of all things is seen to be imparted. What is "in him"? That all things, with a certain wondrous longing and ineffable love, look to the author of their life and the minister of his grace and gift, according to what is written: The eyes of all hope in thee; and: Thou openest thy hand, and fillest every living soul with good will.

92. Applying the Formula to the Father

Of the Father too, if you should say: therefore "of him," because of him is the operative Wisdom, which by its own will and the Father's gave to all things that were not, to be: "through him," because through his Wisdom all things were made: "in him," because he himself is the source of life-giving substance, in whom we live and are and move.

93. Applying the Formula to the Spirit

Of the Spirit likewise, that being formed through him, strengthened through him, made firm in him, we may receive the gift of eternal life.

94. These Terms Imply No Inferiority in Any Person

Since therefore these things seem to apply either to the Father, or to the Son, or to the Holy Spirit, it is certain that nothing lowly is thereby declared of any of them; since we say that many things are of the Son, and many things through the Father, just as you have it said of the Son: That we may grow up in him in all things, who is the head, Christ, from whom, he says, the whole body, being fitted and joined together through every joint of supply, according to the measure of every part, makes increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love. And again to the Colossians, of those who did not hold the knowledge of the only-begotten Son of God: Because they do not hold, he says, the head, from whom the whole body, being supplied and knit together through joints and bands, increases with the increase of God; for we said above that Christ is the head of the Church.

And elsewhere you have it that of his fullness we have all received. And the Lord himself said: He shall receive of mine, and shall declare it unto you. And above he says: I knew that virtue had gone out from me.

95. More Scriptural Proofs Concerning the Spirit

Likewise, that you may recognize the unity, it is said also of the Spirit: For he that sows in the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And John says: Hereby we know that he abides in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And the Angel says: That which shall be born of her, is of the Holy Spirit. And the Lord says that what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

96. All Things Are of the Father, Son, and Spirit

Therefore, just as we read that all things are of the Father, so likewise we may say that all things are of the Son, through whom all things are: and that all things are of the Spirit, in whom all things are, we are taught by these testimonies.

97. Scriptural Examples of Through the Father

Now let us consider whether we can show that anything is "through the Father." For it is written: Paul, a servant of Christ through the will of God; and elsewhere: Wherefore now he is no more a servant, but a son: and if a son, an heir also through God; and elsewhere: As Christ rose again from the dead through the glory of the Father. And elsewhere God the Father says to the Son: Behold, proselytes shall come to thee through me.

98. The Father Not Diminished by Such Words

You will find many other things, if you seek, made "through the Father." Is the Father then lesser, because we read that many things are in the Son and of the Son: and yet we find in the heavenly Scriptures very many things made or given "through the Father"?

99. Scriptural Examples of Through the Spirit

But also "through the Spirit" we likewise read that very many things are made, as you have it: But God has revealed them to us through his Spirit; and elsewhere: Keep that good thing committed to thee through the Holy Spirit; and to the Ephesians: To be strengthened through his Spirit; and to the Corinthians: For to another is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; and elsewhere: But if through the Spirit you shall mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live; and above: He who raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies through his Spirit dwelling in you.

100. No Distance of Power in Any Expression

But perhaps someone will say: Show me a specific text where it is read that all things are "of the Son," or all things "of the Spirit." But I reply, let them likewise show me a text where it is read that all things are "through the Father." But since we have proved that these expressions apply either to the Father, or to the Son, or to the Holy Spirit, and that no distance of divine power can arise from such syllables; there is no doubt that we ought to understand that through whom all things are, of him also are all things: and of whom all things are, through him also are all things: and in whom all things are, through him or of him also are all things.

For every creature exists by the will, and through the operation, and in the power of the Trinity, as it is written: Let us make man to our image and likeness; and elsewhere: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all the power of them by the Spirit of his mouth.

101. One Calling of Father, Son, and Spirit

Nor is there only one operation everywhere of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, but also one and the same will, one calling, one command: which may be observed in that great and saving mystery of the Church. For just as the Father called the Gentiles to the Church, saying: I will call that which was not my people, my people: and her that was not beloved, beloved (Hosea II); and elsewhere: My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations: so also the Lord Jesus, for the calling forth and gathering together of the Church, says that Paul was chosen by himself, as you have it said to Ananias by the Lord Jesus: Go, for he is a chosen vessel to me, to bear my name before the Gentiles.

102. Paul Called by Christ and the Spirit

Just as, therefore, God the Father called the Church, so too Christ called it: and just as Christ called it, so too the Spirit called it, saying: Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have called them. Then, fasting and praying, he says, they laid their hands upon them, and sent them away. And they, being sent forth by the Holy Spirit, came down to Seleucia. Therefore Paul received the apostolate not only by the command of Christ, but also of the Holy Spirit, and hastened to the gathering of the Gentiles.

103. Peter's Vision and the Spirit's Command

Nor was it Paul alone, but also Peter, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles. For when in prayer he had seen heaven opened, and a certain vessel bound at four corners, like a great sheet, in which were all kinds of four-footed beasts, and wild animals, and birds of the heaven, a voice came to him: Arise, kill, and eat. And Peter said: Far be it, Lord: I have never eaten anything common or unclean. And the voice again to him: What God has cleansed, do not thou call common. This was done three times, and the vessel was received up into heaven. Then, while Peter was silently pondering this within himself, and the servants of Cornelius, sent by an angel, had come to him, the Spirit said to him: Behold, men seek thee; arise therefore, and go down, and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them.

104. The Spirit Addressed as Lord by Peter

How clearly did the Holy Spirit express his own power? First of all, because he breathed upon him as he prayed, and was present to him as he besought: then, because when called, Peter answered, "Lord," and thus more evidently deserved the oracle, because he confessed him as Lord. But who this Lord is, Scripture declares; for to him who answered, it was he to whom the answer had been given who spoke: but the following words show that it was the Spirit who was declared, because he who figured the mystery was the one revealing the mystery.

105. The Threefold Sign and the Threefold Confession

At the same time, observe this: that the figure of the mystery, repeated a third time, expressed the operation of the Trinity. And therefore in the mysteries a threefold interrogation is made, and a threefold confirmation is celebrated: nor can anyone be cleansed except by a threefold confession. Whence Peter himself, in the Gospel, is asked three times whether he loves the Lord; that by a threefold answer the bonds might be loosed which he had drawn upon himself by denying the Lord, and by which he had bound himself.

106. The Spirit Falls Upon the Gentiles

Then further, because an angel is sent to Cornelius, but the Holy Spirit speaks to Peter: For the eyes of the Lord are upon the faithful of the earth. Nor is this without meaning, that when he had said above: What God has cleansed, do not thou call common; the Holy Spirit suddenly fell upon the Gentiles, to cleanse them; whereby it is shown that the operation of the Spirit is a divine operation. But Peter, sent by the Spirit, did not wait for the command of God the Father, but confessed that oracle as belonging to the Spirit himself also, and testified that it was the grace of the Spirit himself, saying: If then God gave them the same grace as to us; who was I, that I should withstand God?

107. Wild Beasts as a Figure of the Gentiles

It is the Holy Spirit, then, who cleansed us from that filth of the Gentiles. For in those kinds of four-footed beasts, and wild animals, and birds, there was a figure of the human condition, which seems to have put on a bestial fierceness after the manner of wild beasts, unless it be tamed by the sanctification of the Spirit. Good, then, is that grace which changes savage rage into spiritual simplicity: For we ourselves also were sometime foolish, unbelieving, erring, serving divers desires and pleasures: but now, through the renewal of the Spirit, we have begun to be heirs of Christ, joint-heirs with the angels.

108. David's Prophecy of the Wild Beasts of the Reeds

And so the holy prophet David, seeing by the Spirit that we from wild beasts should become like the beings of heaven, says: Rebuke the wild beasts of the reeds, signifying by "reeds" not that thicket rough with the courses of wild beasts, nor bristling with the groanings of animals, but that wood of which it is written: We found it in the fields of the wood. In which, as the Prophet said, the just shall flourish like the palm tree, and shall be multiplied like the cedar that is in Lebanon. That wood, which, shaken by the tops of the prophetic trees, poured down the nourishment of the heavenly Word. That wood, into which Paul entered indeed as a ravening wolf, but went out as a shepherd: For their sound has gone out into all the earth.

109. The Spirit Transforms Our Beastly Vices

We were, then, wild beasts, and therefore the Lord says: Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly are ravening wolves. But through the Holy Spirit the ferocity of lions, the variegated markings of leopards, the cunning of foxes, the rapacity of wolves, have now passed away from our dispositions. Great, then, is the grace which has exchanged earth for heaven; that our citizenship, as the Apostle said, might be in the heavens, we who before, like wild beasts, wandered in the woods.

110. The Spirit Joins Jew and Gentile in One Church

But not only in this passage did the Apostle Peter, but also elsewhere in the same book, show that the Church was built by the Holy Spirit. For you have it that he said: God, who knows the hearts of men, bore witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as also to us; and put no difference between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. In which it is to be observed that, just as Christ is the cornerstone, who joined the unity of both peoples, so also the Holy Spirit did not divide the hearts of either people, but joined them together.

111. Jeremiah Rescued from the Pit by Abdemelech

Do not, then, like a Jew, despise the Son, whom the prophets proclaimed; do not despise also the Holy Spirit, do not despise Isaiah, do not despise Jeremiah, whom, taken from the pit of the house of Judah, that man lifted up with rags and ropes at the Lord's bidding. For the people of the Jews, despising the prophetic word, had sunk him into the pit. Nor was there found any of the Jews to lift up the prophet, but one Ethiopian, Abdemelech, as the Scripture testifies.

112. Ethiopia as a Figure of the Church

In this name there is a most beautiful figure, because the prophetic word, which the Jews had thrust down as it were into the mire of their own mind and flesh, we—clearly sinners from among the Gentiles, black before through our offenses, and once unfruitful—raised up out of the depth. And therefore it is written: Ethiopia shall lift up her hands to God. In which the likeness of holy Church is signified, who says in the Canticle of Canticles: I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem; black through fault, beautiful through grace: black through condition, beautiful through redemption: or certainly black with the dust of her own exertion. Black, then, while she wages battle: beautiful while she is crowned with the insignia of her victory.

113. The Meaning of the Cords and the Rags

And rightly is the prophet lifted up by cords; for the faithful man said: The cords have fallen unto me in goodly places. Rightly by rags; because the Lord himself, when those who had first been called to the wedding made excuses, sent to the outgoings of the ways, that as many as were found, both good and bad, should be called to the wedding. By these rags, then, he raised up the prophetic word from the mire.

114. Becoming Like Abdemelech Through Faith

You too, then, shall be Abdemelech, that is, one taken up by the Lord, if you shall raise up the Word of God out of the depth of Gentile imprudence: if you shall believe that he is not deceived; that the Son of God is not passed over, does not fail to know what is to come; that the Holy Spirit too is not deceived, of whom the Lord says: But when that Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. He who says "all," passes over nothing—not the day, not the hour, not things past, not things to come.

115. The Spirit Declares Only What He Receives

And that you may know that he both knows all things, and announces things to come, and is of one knowledge with the Father and the Son, hear what the truth of God says of him: For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, he shall speak, and the things that shall come, he shall declare unto you.

116. The Spirit's Exception from Ignorance of the Day

So that you may notice that he knows all things: when the Son said, But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, he excepted the Holy Spirit. But if the Holy Spirit was excepted from ignorance, how is not the Son of God excepted?

117. The Son Numbered with Angels, Not the Spirit

But you say that he numbered even the Son of God among the angels. He indeed numbered the Son, but he did not number the Spirit as well. Confess, then, either that the Holy Spirit is greater than the Son of God, so that now you speak not merely as an Arian but even as a Photinian; or else acknowledge to what you ought to refer what he said the Son does not know. For as man he could be numbered among creatures, he who was created.

118. The Spirit Receives All Things from the Son

But if you wish to learn that the Son of God knows all things, and has foreknowledge of all things to come, know that whatever things you think unknown to the Son, the Holy Spirit has received from the Son concerning them. He received them, moreover, through the unity of substance, just as the Son received from the Father: He, he says, shall glorify me, because he shall receive of mine, and shall declare it unto you. All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he shall receive of mine, and shall declare it unto you. What, then, is more evident than this unity? What things the Father hath are the Son's: what things the Son hath, the Spirit too has received. And. Take note, however, that the Son knows the day of judgment. It is read in Zechariah: And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with him.

In that day there shall be no light, but cold and frost: and it shall be one day, and that day is known unto the Lord. This day, then, is known to the Lord, who shall come with his saints, about to illumine us at his second coming.

121. Mutual Glory Between the Son and the Spirit

But let us pursue what we began concerning the Spirit. For you have, in the example we set forth above, that the Son says of the Spirit: He shall glorify me. The Spirit, then, glorifies the Son, just as the Father also glorifies him: but the Son of God also glorifies the Spirit, as we said above. He is not, therefore, weak, who returns mutual glory through the unity of eternal light: nor is he inferior to the Holy Spirit, whose very own it is, that he is glorified by the Spirit.

122. Being Taken Up Through Faith in the Spirit

You too, then, shall be taken up, if you believe that the Spirit spoke what the Father spoke, what the Son spoke. In short, Paul was taken up for this reason, that he so believed, so taught, that what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, he hath revealed to us by his Spirit, as it is written. And therefore he is called the Spirit of revelation, as you have: For God gives to those who thus prepare themselves the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of him.

123. Mutual Knowledge Between the Father and the Son

There is, then, a unity of knowledge, since as the Father reveals, who gives the Spirit of revelation, so too does the Son reveal; for it is written: No one knows the Son but the Father; neither does anyone know the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. He said more concerning the Son, not because he has more than the Father, but lest he be believed to have less. Nor is it without cause that the Father is thus revealed by the Son; because the Son knows the Father in the same way as the Father knows the Son.

124. The Analogy of Man's Spirit and God's Spirit

Take note now that the Spirit too knows God the Father; for it is written that, as no one knows the things of a man but the spirit of man which is in him, so also no one has known the things of God but the Spirit of God. No one, he says, has known, but the Spirit of God. Is the Son of God then excluded? By no means; for neither is the Holy Spirit excluded, when it is said: Neither does anyone know the Father but the Son.

125. One Nature, Not Numbered Among Creatures

Therefore the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are of one nature and of one knowledge. Nor is the Spirit to be numbered with all things that were made through the Son, since he knows God the Father, whom, as it is written, no one can know but the Son. But the Holy Spirit knows him too. What then? When the totality of created things is spoken of, the Holy Spirit is not comprehended within it.

126. The Rational Faculty and the Spirit's Searching

Now I would have them answer, what is it in man that knows the things of man? Surely the rational faculty, which surpasses the other powers of the soul, and by which the chief nature of man is judged. What, then, is the Spirit, who knows the deep things of God, through whom Almighty God is revealed? Is he inferior in the fullness of divinity, he who by this very example too is proved to be of the same substance with the Father? Or does he who knows the counsels of God, and his mysteries hidden from the beginning, know something not fully? What is it that he does not know, who knows all things that are God's? For the Spirit searches even the deep things of God.

127. Searching by Nature, Not by Learning

And lest you suppose that he searches things unknown, and searches for this reason, that he may learn what he does not know, the Apostle had said before that God has revealed to us through his Spirit; that at the same time you might learn that the Spirit knows the things that are revealed to us through that same Spirit, he says afterward: For who among men knows the things of a man, but the spirit of man which is in him? So also the things of God no one has known, but the Spirit of God. If, then, the spirit of man knows the things of man, and knows even before it searches, can there be anything of God's which the Spirit of God does not know?

Of whom the Apostle said, not idly: The things of God no one has known but the Spirit of God—not that he learned by searching, but that he knew by nature: not that the knowledge of divine things is in him a thing acquired, but that it is knowledge by nature.

128. The Spirit as Searcher, Like Father and Son

But if you are troubled by the fact that he said "searches," know that this too is written of God, in that he is a searcher of the heart and the reins. For he himself said: I am he that searches the hearts and the reins. Of the Son of God also you have, in the Epistle to the Hebrews: Who is a searcher of the mind and thought. Whence it is clear that no one inferior searches the inward things of one who is superior; for it is of divine power alone to know hidden things. In like manner, then, the Holy Spirit is a searcher, as is the Father; in like manner the Son also is a searcher: by which propriety of speech it is expressed that there seems to be nothing that he does not know, whom nothing escapes.

129. Paul's Testimony to the Spirit's Demonstration

In short, that elect one, chosen by Christ, was instructed by the Spirit. For as he himself testifies, having attained through the Spirit the knowledge of the divine mystery, he shows both that the Spirit knows God, and that the Spirit has revealed to us the things that are God's, just as the Son also has revealed them. And he added: Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us by God, which things also we speak, not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power of God?

130. One Speech Shared by Father, Son, and Spirit

It has been proved, then, that as God has revealed to us the things that are his own, so too the Son has revealed the things of God, and so too the Spirit has revealed them. For from one Spirit through one Son into one Father our knowledge proceeds: and from one Father through one Son into one Holy Spirit goodness and sanctification and the imperial right of eternal power is handed down. Where, then, there is demonstration of the Spirit, there is the power of God: nor can there be any distinction, where the work is one. And therefore what the Son speaks, the Father also speaks: and what the Father speaks, the Son also speaks: and what the Father and the Son speak, the Holy Spirit also speaks.

131. The Spirit Speaks Only What He Hears

Whence too the Son of God said of the Spirit: For he shall not speak of himself, that is, not without communion of me and of the Father; for the Spirit is not divided or separated, but whatsoever he hears, he speaks: he hears, that is, through unity of substance, and through propriety of knowledge. For he does not receive hearing through any corporeal apertures, nor does the divine voice resound through certain carnal instruments, nor does he hear what he does not know; since among human affairs knowledge is generally effected by hearing, and yet not even among men themselves is there always a corporeal address, or carnal hearing: For he that speaks in a tongue, it says, speaks not unto men, but unto God. For no man hears him, but in the Spirit he speaks mysteries.

132. God Hears Without Bodily Sound

If, then, among men there is not always corporeal hearing; do you demand of God the sound of human weakness, and certain organs of carnal hearing, when he is said to hear for this reason, that he may be believed to know? For we know that which we have heard, and we hear beforehand, that we may be able to know: but in God, who knows all things before they come to pass, knowledge precedes hearing. Thus, that we may say the Son does not fail to know what the Father wills, we recall that he "heard": but in God there is no sound, no syllable, such as usually signify the token of will; but unity of will is understood in the divine mysteries indeed, but is signified by tokens for us.

133. The Meaning of Speaking Not of Himself

What then does "for he shall not speak of himself" mean? This: he does not speak without me; because he shall speak the truth, he breathes forth wisdom. He does not speak without the Father, because he is the Spirit of God: he does not hear of himself, since all things are from God.

134. The Chain of Reception from Father to Spirit

The Son received all things from the Father, for he himself said: All things have been delivered to me by my Father. The Son has all things of the Father; for again he says: All things that the Father has are mine. And what he himself received through unity of nature, from him, through that same unity, the Spirit too received, as the Lord Jesus himself declares, speaking of his own Spirit: Therefore I said, that he shall receive of mine, and shall declare it unto you. What, then, the Spirit speaks, is the Son's: what the Son gave, is the Father's. Thus neither the Son nor the Spirit speaks anything of himself, because the Trinity speaks nothing outside itself.

135. Refuting the Charge of Bodily Weakness

But if you contend that this should be twisted to the weakness of the Holy Spirit and to a certain likeness of corporeal baseness, you will twist it to the injury of the Son as well; because the Son also said of himself: As I hear, I judge; and, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For if it is true, as indeed it is true, what the Son said: All things that the Father has are mine; and according to divinity the Son is one with the Father, one through natural substance, not one according to the Sabellian heresy—since that which is one through propriety of substance cannot be separated, it follows that the Son cannot do anything except what he has heard from the Father; because the Word of God abides forever, nor is the Father ever divided from the Son's operation: and what the Son works, he knows that the Father wills; and what the Father wills, the Son knows how to work.

136. One Operation of Father, Son, and Spirit

Finally, lest you should think there was any distance of operation between the Father and the Son, either in time or in order, but should believe there was unity of the same operation: “And the works,” he says, “which I do, He Himself does”. And again, lest you should perceive any discrepancy in the distinction of operation, but should judge that the Father and the Son will the same thing, do the same thing, are able to do the same thing, Wisdom says to you concerning the Father: “For whatsoever things He shall have done, the same the Son also does likewise”. Therefore the act is not prior for one or second for another, but the same effect of one operation. And therefore the Son is said to be able to do nothing of Himself; because His operation cannot be separated from the Father. Likewise also the operation of the Holy Spirit is not separated. Whence also the things which He speaks are said to be heard from the Father.

137. The Father Also Hears the Son

What if I teach that the Father also hears the Son, just as the Son also hears the Father? For you have it written in the Gospel, that the Son says: “Father, I give thee thanks, because thou hast heard me”. How did the Father hear the Son, since the Son had said nothing to the Father above concerning Lazarus? And lest you should think that the Son was heard by the Father only once, He added: “And I knew that thou hearest me always”. Therefore this is the hearing not of a subjected obedience, but of an everlasting unity.

138. The Spirit Glorifies the Son Without Division

Likewise, therefore, the Spirit also is said to hear from the Father, and to glorify the Son. He is said to glorify Him for this reason: because the Holy Spirit has taught us that the Son of God is the image of the invisible God, and the brightness of His glory, and the character of His substance. For the Spirit spoke also in the patriarchs and in the prophets; and finally the apostles began to be more perfect after they had received the Spirit. There is therefore no distance of divine power and grace; for although there are divisions of graces, yet it is the same Spirit; and there are divisions of ministries, yet it is the same Lord; and there are divisions of operations, yet it is the same God who works all things in all. There are divisions of gifts, not separations of the Trinity.

139. The Same Spirit Distributes All the Gifts

Finally, it is the same God who works all things in all; that you may know that there is no separation of operation between God the Father and the Holy Spirit, since the things which the Spirit works, God the Father also works, who works all things in all. For while the Father works all things in all: to one, indeed, is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another the grace of healings in one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discerning of spirits, to another kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of speeches. But all these things the one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each one as He wills.

140. The Spirit Works by Will, Not by Command

There is therefore no doubt but that the things which the Father works, the Spirit also works. Not out of command, as one who hears bodily works; but out of will, as one who is of his own free judgment, not the servant of another's power. For He does not obey as one who has been ordered, but as a bestower He is the moderator of His own bestowal.

141. The Father Wills What the Spirit Wills

See now meanwhile whether you say that the Spirit works all the things which the Father also works; yet you cannot deny that the Father works what the Holy Spirit works: otherwise the Father does not work all things, if He does not work those things which the Spirit also works. But if the things which the Spirit works, the Father also works; since the Spirit distributes His operations according to His own will, it is necessary that either you say that what the Spirit distributes He distributes from His own will against the will of God the Father, or if you shall have said that the Father wills the same as the Holy Spirit wills, it is necessary that you confess, even unwillingly, and if not with the heart, at least with the mouth, the unity of divine will and operation.

142. One Substance Proved by One Will and Operation

But if the Holy Spirit is of one will and operation with God the Father, He is also of one substance; since the creator is recognized from His works. Therefore the same Spirit, he says, the same Lord, he says, the same God. And if you say Spirit, it is the same; and if you say Lord, it is the same; and if you say God, it is the same. Not the same in such a way that the Father Himself, the Son Himself, should be the Spirit Himself: but because both the Father and the Son are of the same power. Therefore He is the same through substance and power; because in the divinity there is neither Sabellian confusion, nor Arian separation, nor earthly and bodily change.

143. The Spirit as Author of Prophecy

Take up another proof, holy Emperor, strong in the case and known to you. “In many ways,” he says, “and in many manners God also spoke to the fathers in the prophets”. And the Wisdom of God said: “I will send prophets and apostles.” And, to one is given, as it is written, through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another the grace of healings in one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy. Therefore according to the Apostle, prophecy is not only through the Father and the Son, but also through the Holy Spirit; and therefore it is one gift, it is one grace. You have it, therefore, that the Spirit also is the author of prophecies.

144. It Seemed Good to the Spirit and to Us

The apostles also said: “It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us”. And when they say, it has seemed good, they show not only the worker of grace, but also the author of the execution that has been commanded. For just as we read of God: “It pleased God”; so also, when it is said that it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit, an arbiter of His own power is expressed.

145. The Spirit Commands and Sends the Apostles

And how is He not an arbiter, who speaks the things He wills, who commands the things He wills; just as the Father commands, the Son also commands? For just as Paul heard a voice saying to him: “I am,” He said, “Jesus, whom thou persecutest”; so also the Spirit forbade Paul and Silas to go into Bithynia. And just as the Father spoke through the prophets, so also concerning the Spirit, Agabus says: “Thus says the Holy Spirit: The man whose girdle this is, so shall they bind him in Jerusalem”. And just as Wisdom sent the apostles, saying: “Go into the whole world, and preach the Gospel”; so also the Holy Spirit says: “Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them”. And so, those sent forth by the Holy Spirit—as the Scripture further indicates—had no distinction from the other apostles, as though they were sent in one way by God the Father, in another by the Spirit.

146. The Same Spirit Working in Paul and Peter

Finally, since Paul was sent by the Spirit, and was a vessel of the election of Christ, he also recalls that God worked in him, saying: “For he who worked in Peter for the apostleship of the circumcision, worked also in me toward the Gentiles”. Since therefore the same one worked in Paul who worked in Peter, this at any rate is shown: that since the Spirit worked in Paul, the Holy Spirit also worked in Peter. But also Peter himself testifies that God the Father worked in him, as it is in the Acts of the Apostles, when Peter rising up said to them: “Men, brethren, you know that from the early days God made choice among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the Gospel”. Behold, then, in Peter God worked the grace of preaching. In whom, indeed, since he was chosen and taken up through Christ, who would dare to deny the working of Christ, since the Lord Himself says: “Feed my little lambs”?

147. One Operation of the Father, Son, and Spirit

There is therefore one operation of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: unless perhaps you think this—you who deny the unity of the same work toward the apostles—that the Father worked, that the Spirit worked in Peter, in whom the Son had worked, as though the operation of the Son did not at all redound to his grace. And so, as though by joined and combined powers of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the operation was manifold, lest the working of Christ alone should waver in confirming Peter.

148. God Works by Command, Not by Labor

Nor is only one operation of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit found in Peter, but also in all the apostles the unity of the divine operation is revealed, and a certain authority of a supernal constitution. For the divine operation has command, it does not have ministry; for when God works, He does not fashion something by labor or by art: but He said, and they were made. He said, “Let there be light, and there was light”; for in the command of God is the effect of the operation.

149. Apostles as Ministers of the Whole Trinity

This, then—a certain regal power delivered even to the Holy Spirit by the testimony of the Scriptures—if we are willing to notice it, we can easily find; and it will be revealed that all the apostles were not only disciples of Christ, but also ministers of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. As also the Teacher of the Gentiles teaches, saying: “God has set some indeed in the Church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers: then powers, the grace of healing, helps, governments, kinds of tongues”.

150. Different Gifts Given to Different Believers

Behold, God set apostles, set prophets and teachers, gave the grace of healings, which above you have as given through the Holy Spirit, gave kinds of tongues. But yet not all are apostles, not all prophets, not all teachers. Not all, he says, have the grace of healings, neither, he says, do all speak with tongues. For in individual men all the divine gifts cannot exist: each one receives, according to his capacity, that which he either desires or deserves. But the power of the Trinity, which is munificent of all graces, is not similar to this infirmity.

151. Christ Sends the Apostles into the World

Finally, God set apostles. These whom God set in the Church, Christ chose, and ordained apostles, and spoke into the world, saying: “Go into the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He who shall believe, and shall be baptized, shall be saved: but he who shall not believe, shall be condemned. And these signs shall follow them that believe: in my name they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay hands upon the sick, and they shall recover”. Behold, the Father set teachers, and Christ also set them in the Churches; and just as the Father gives the grace of healings, so also the Son gives it; just as the Father gives the gifts of tongues, so the Son also has bestowed them.

152. The Spirit Appoints Bishops over the Church

Likewise concerning the Holy Spirit we have learned above, that He bestows the same kinds of graces. For, he says, through the Spirit is given to one the grace of healings, to another kinds of tongues, to another prophecy. Therefore the Spirit gives the same things which the Father gives, which the Son also gives. Let us now take up more explicitly what we touched upon above, that the Holy Spirit commands the same office as the Father and the Son, and appoints the same men; for Paul said: “Take heed to yourselves, and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has placed you bishops, to rule the Church of God”.

153. Unity of Command, Constitution, and Bestowal

Therefore there is unity of command, unity of constitution, unity of bestowal. For if you should separate the constitution and the power, what would be the reason that those whom Christ had made apostles, God the Father should also make, and the Holy Spirit should also make; unless perhaps because men feared, as it were, a prejudgment of possession or right in common? And so the operation was divided, the command was distributed.

154. The Trinity's Unity Compared to Friendship

These things are narrow and small among men themselves, who for the most part, even if they do not agree in operation, agree in will. Whence a certain man, when asked what a friend was, said: “Another self.” If, then, a man defined a friend in such a way as to say he was another self, namely through the unity of love and grace; how much more ought we to reckon the unity of majesty in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, since through the same operation and divinity either unity, or certainly that which is more, ταυτότης, as it is called in Greek, is expressed? For ταυτὸ signifies the same; because the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have the same thing; so that to will the same and to be able to do the same is not from an affection of will, but in the substance of the Trinity.

155. The Spirit Commands the Separation of Paul and Barnabas

This is the inheritance of the apostolic faith and devotion, which we may consider even from the Acts of the apostles themselves. Paul and Barnabas, then, obeyed the commands of the Holy Spirit. All the apostles also obeyed, and immediately ordained those whom the Spirit had ordered to be separated: “Separate,” he says, “for me Paul and Barnabas”. Do you see the command of the one bidding? Do you observe the merits of those serving?

156. Paul's Conversion and Calling by the Spirit

Paul believed; and because he believed, he cast aside the zeal of a persecutor, and won back the crown of righteousness. He believed who had laid Churches waste: but converted to the faith, he preached in the Spirit what the Spirit commanded. The Spirit anointed his athlete, and, the dust of impiety shaken off, presented him as an unconquerable vanquisher of unbelievers in various contests with the impious, and trained him through diverse sufferings for the prize of the heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.

157. Barnabas Chosen by the Same Spirit

Barnabas also believed, and because he believed, he obeyed. And so, chosen by the command of the Holy Spirit, which redounds to every mark of merit in him, he was not unworthy of so great a fellowship. For one grace shone forth in those whom the one Spirit had chosen.

158. Paul Equal in Honor to Peter

Nor was Paul inferior to Peter, though the one was the foundation of the Church, and the other a wise architect, knowing how to lay foundations for the footsteps of believing peoples: yet Paul, I say, was not unworthy of the fellowship of the apostles, since he is readily to be compared even with the first, and second to none. For he who knows himself not to be unequal, makes himself equal.

In the previous book we taught by clear testimonies of the Scriptures that the apostles and the prophets—the latter for prophesying, the former for evangelizing—were sent by the Holy Spirit, just as by the Father and the Son: now we add what all may rightly marvel at, and cannot doubt, namely that the Spirit was upon Christ; and that just as the Father sent the Spirit, so also the Spirit sent the Son of God. For the Son of God says: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, wherefore he has anointed me, has sent me to evangelize the poor, to preach to captives remission, and sight to the blind. When he had read this from the book of Isaiah, he said in the Gospel: Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your ears; to signify that it was said of himself.

2. Christ Anointed and Sent as Son of Man

Can we then marvel that the Spirit sent both prophets and apostles, when Christ said: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me? And rightly he said, upon me, because he was speaking as the Son of man. For as the Son of man he was both anointed and sent to preach the Gospel.

3. John's Testimony to the Descending Spirit

But if the Son is not believed, let them hear also the Father speaking that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Christ. For he says to John: Upon whomsoever you shall see the Spirit descending from heaven, and remaining upon him, this is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. God the Father said this to John: John both heard, and saw, and believed. He heard from God, he saw in the Lord, he believed that it was the Spirit who was descending from heaven. For it was not a dove, but as a dove it descended; for so it is written: And I saw the Spirit descending from heaven, as a dove.

4. The Dove as Sign, Not Incarnation

As John said that he had seen, so also Mark wrote: but Luke added that the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form, as a dove; lest you should think that to have been an incarnation, but rather an appearance. Now he set forth an appearance for this reason, that through the appearance he who did not see the Spirit might believe, and through the appearance might declare that there is fellowship with the Father and the Son of one honor in dominion, of one operation in mystery, of one gift in the washing—unless perhaps we believe it powerless that the servant should be baptized in that in which the Lord was baptized.

5. The Spirit Remaining Always in Christ

Beautifully, moreover, he said: Remaining upon him; because to the prophets, as often as the Spirit willed, he either inspired the word, or produced it: but he always remained in Christ.

6. The Spirit in Christ According to His Divinity

Nor again let it trouble anyone that he said upon him; for he was speaking of the Son of man, since it was as the Son of man that he was being baptized. For according to divinity the Spirit is not upon Christ, but in Christ; because just as the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, so the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ is both in the Father and in the Son, because he is the Spirit of the mouth. For he who is from God remains in God, as it is written: But we have not received the spirit of this world, but the spirit which is from God. And he remains in Christ, who received from Christ: and he is in Christ, because again it is written: He shall receive of mine: and elsewhere: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.

Therefore according to the divinity of Christ he is not upon Christ, because the Trinity is not upon itself, but above all things—but above itself it is not, rather it is in itself.

7. The Spirit's Equal Power in Being Sent

Who then would doubt that the Spirit sent prophets and apostles, when the Son of God says: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me? And elsewhere: I am the first, and I am forever: and my hand has founded the earth, and my right hand has established heaven: I will call them, and they shall stand together, and all shall be gathered, and shall hear. Who has declared these things to them? Loving you, I have done your will against Babylon, that the seed of the Chaldeans might be taken away. I have spoken, and I have called: I have brought him, and I have made his way prosperous. Come near to me, and hear these things. I have not spoken in secret from the beginning: when these things came to be, I was there. And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit Who is it that says: The Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit; but he who came from the Father, that he might save sinners?

Whom, when you hear that the Spirit also sent, lest, when you read that the Son sends the Spirit, you should believe the Spirit to be of a lesser power.

8. Mutual Sending Shows Fellowship, Not Subjection

Therefore both the Father sent the Son, and the Spirit sent him: the Spirit also both the Father sent, and the Son. The Father sent, because it is written: But the Paraclete, that Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name. The Son sent, because he said: But when that Paraclete has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth. If therefore the Son and the Spirit send one another mutually, just as the Father sends, this is not an injury of subjection, but a fellowship of power.

9. The Son Given as Grace, Not Subjection

Nor did the Father only send the Son, but also gave him, just as the Son also gave himself. For we have read: Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins. If they think that he was subject in this, because he was sent; they cannot deny that it belongs to grace, because he was given. But he was given by the Father, as Isaiah said: A child is born to us, a Son is given to us; he was given, moreover, I dare say, even by the Spirit, who is himself sent by the Spirit. For since the prophet did not define by whom he was given, he shows him given by the grace of the Trinity: but since the Son gave himself, he certainly could not, according to divinity, be subject to himself. Therefore that he was given could not belong to divine subjection.

10. The Spirit Also Given by the Father and Son

But the Holy Spirit also was given, for it is written: I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete. And the Apostle says: Therefore he who despises these things, despises not man, but God, who has given his Spirit in us. Isaiah also shows both the Spirit given and the Son: Thus, he says, says the Lord God, who made heaven and formed it: who established the earth and the things that are in it: and gives Spirit to the people that is upon it, and Spirit to those who tread upon it. And to the Son: I the Lord God have called you in righteousness, and I will hold your hand, and strengthen you: and I have given you as a covenant of my race, for a light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to lead forth the bound out of their chains. Since therefore the Son was both sent and given, the Spirit also was sent and given; certainly they have unity of divinity, who have unity of operation.

11. The Spirit Called the Finger of God

Whence also the Spirit is called the finger of God, for the reason that there is an undivided and inseparable communion of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For just as Scripture called the Son of God the right hand of God, as it is written: Your right hand, O Lord, is glorified in strength, your right hand, O Lord, has broken the enemies; so the Holy Spirit is called the finger of God, as the Lord himself says: But if I cast out demons by the finger of God. For this finger, in another book of the Gospel, in the same passage, he named the Spirit of God, as you have it: But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God.

12. The Undivided Unity of Divine Power

What then could be said more clearly to signify the unity of divinity or of operation, which according to divinity belongs to the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, than that we should understand it much more than this body of ours, that the fullness of eternal divinity would seem to be torn apart, if anyone were to separate the unity of substance, and multiply powers; when the eternity of that same divinity is one?

13. Eternal Power and Divinity in the Son and Spirit

For very often it is fitting to estimate the things that are above us from our own words: and because we cannot see those things, let us gather from things we can see. For, says the Apostle, his invisible things are understood and perceived from the creation of the world, through the things that are made. And he added: also his eternal power and divinity. Of these one seems said of the Son, the other of the Holy Spirit; so that just as the eternal power of the Father is called the Son, so also the Spirit, because he is divine, may be believed to be eternal divinity. For the Son also, because he lives forever, is eternal life. This finger of God, therefore, is both eternal and divine. For what is proper to God that is not eternal and divine?

13. The Law Written by the Spirit, Not Ink

With this finger, as we read, God inscribed those stone tablets which Moses received. For God did not form the strokes and elements of these letters which we read with a fleshly finger: but he gave the Law by his Spirit. And therefore the Apostle said: For the Law is spiritual, which certainly is not inscribed with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God: not on tablets of stone, but on fleshly tablets of the heart. For if the epistle of the Apostle is written in the Spirit, what prevents us from believing that even the law of God was written not with ink, but by the Spirit of God: which certainly does not stain, but illumines, the secret places of our heart and mind?

14. Broken Tablets, Unbroken Faith

Now it was written on tablets of stone, because it was written in a figure: but the tablets were first broken, and cast down from the hands of Moses; because the Jews fell away from the prophetic works. And rightly the tablets were broken, but the writing was not blotted out. And you, take care lest your own tablet be broken, lest your mind and soul be divided. Is Christ divided? He is not divided, but he is one with the Father: and let no one separate you from him. If faith fails, the tablet of your heart is broken. The firmness of the soul is shattered, if you do not believe the unity of divinity in the Trinity. Your faith is written, and your fault is written, as Jeremiah said: Your fault, O Judah, is written with a pen of iron and with the point of a diamond. And it is written, he says, upon the breast and upon the tablet of your heart.

There, then, is fault, where there is grace: but fault is written with a pen, grace is marked out by the Spirit.

15. Christ Writing on the Ground and the Adulteress

With this finger, mystically also, the Lord Jesus, having bowed his head, was writing on the ground, when the adulteress was brought before him by the Jews: signifying by this figure, that when we judge the sins of another, we ought to remember our own sin.

16. Spiritual Things Discerned by the Spirit Alone

And lest again, because God wrote the Law by his Spirit, we should believe something lesser, as it were, concerning the ministry of the Spirit, or, from an estimation drawn from our own body, should think the Spirit of God to be some small portion, the Apostle says elsewhere that he does not speak in words of human knowledge, but to those taught by the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual: but that the natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God; for he knew that he who compared divine things to carnal things was to be reckoned among the animal, not among spiritual men: For it is foolishness to him, he says. And therefore, because he knew that these would be the questions of animal men, foreseeing the future he said: For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

17. The Spirit as Finger and the Son as Right Hand

But if anyone still clings to fleshly ambiguities, and wavers over corporeal examples, let him consider that he cannot rightly think concerning the Son, who can wrongly think concerning the Spirit. For if for this reason they suppose the Spirit of God to be some small portion, because he is called the finger of God, the same persons must certainly also say that the Son of God is a small portion, because he is called the right hand of God.

18. The Son's Co-Eternal Power with the Father

But the Son is also called the right hand and power: and so, if we weigh our words, no perfection can be without power; and therefore let them beware lest they think—what is unlawful to say—that the Father, semi-perfect in his own substance, received perfection through the Son, and let them cease to deny that the Son is co-eternal with the Father. For when was the power of God not? But if they think that at some time the power of God did not exist, they will be denying that at some time there was fullness in God the Father, to whom they suppose power was at some time lacking.

19. The Fullness of Divinity in Father, Son, and Spirit

But these things, as I have said, were written that we might refer them to the unity of the divinity, and believe what the Apostle said, that the fullness of the divinity dwells bodily in Christ, and dwells in the Father, and dwells in the Holy Spirit: and that just as there is unity of divinity, so also there is unity of operation.

20. The Song of Moses and the Work of the Trinity

This can also be gathered from the Song of Moses; for when he had led the people of the Jews through the seas, he confessed both the operation of God the Father and of the Son and of the Spirit, saying: Thy right hand, O Lord, is glorified in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemies. You have here that he confessed both the Son and the Father, whose is the right hand. And below, lest he should pass over the Holy Spirit, he added: Thou didst send forth thy Spirit, and the sea covered them: and by the Spirit of thy wrath the water was divided. By which is signified the unity of the divinity, not an inequality of the Trinity.

21. The Holy Spirit's Part in Crossing the Red Sea

You see, therefore, that the Holy Spirit also cooperated with the Father and the Son, so that, the waves as it were congealing in the midst of the sea, a certain wall of waters arose for the passage of the Jews, and again, poured back through the Spirit, overwhelmed the people of the Egyptians. Hence also many think that a pillar of cloud went before the people of the Jews by day, and a pillar of fire by night, whereby spiritual grace protected his people.

22. The Israelites' Baptism Prefigured in Cloud and Sea

Moreover, that this operation of God, which the whole world rightly admires, was not without the work of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle also declared, saying that in that figure the truth of the spiritual mystery had gone before; for thus you have it: For our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized in Moses, in the cloud and in the sea: and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink.

23. Washed, Sanctified, and Justified in the Spirit

For how could the type of the sacrament have existed without the operation of the Holy Spirit, whose whole truth is in the Spirit? Which the Apostle also taught, saying: But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.

24. The Trinity's Shared Work in the Baptismal Font

You see, therefore, that the Father works in the Son, and the Son works in the Spirit. And therefore, following the sequence of the Scriptures, do not doubt that what truth itself has declared to exist in truth was present in figure. For who could deny his operation in the laver, in which he grants his operation and his grace as the seventh?

25. The Father and the Son Sanctify

For just as the Father sanctifies, so also the Son sanctifies, and the Holy Spirit sanctifies. The Father sanctifies, according as it is written: May the God of peace sanctify you, that your whole spirit, and soul, and body may be kept without blame unto the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. And elsewhere the Son says: Father, sanctify them in the truth.

26. The Son Made Sanctification for Us

But concerning the Son the same Apostle said: Who was made unto us wisdom from God, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption. You see that he was made sanctification? But he was made this for us; not that he changed what he was, but that he might sanctify us in the flesh.

27. The Apostle on the Spirit's Work of Sanctification

The Apostle also teaches that the Holy Spirit sanctifies. For thus he says: We ought to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord; because God has chosen you as first-fruits unto salvation, in sanctification of the Spirit, and faith of the truth.

28. One Sanctification, One Baptism, One Grace

Therefore the Father sanctifies, the Son also sanctifies, the Holy Spirit also sanctifies: but there is one sanctification, because there is one baptism, and one grace of the sacrament.

29. The Spirit Sanctifies Without Needing Sanctification

But what wonder is it if he sanctifies each one, himself not needing sanctification but overflowing with it; since we have received so great a majesty of his, as I have said, that the Holy Spirit is seen to be as inseparable from God the Father as a finger from the body?

30. Against Picturing the Trinity in Bodily Form

But if anyone thinks this ought to be referred to a diminishing rather than to a unity of power, he will certainly fall into that madness of seeming to fashion the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit as it were into one bodily form, and to imagine certain distinctions of members.

31. The Works of Hands Are the Works of God

But let them understand, as I have often said, that not inequality but unity of power is signified by this testimony; seeing that the works which are the works of God are the same works of the hands, and we also read that these same are the works of the fingers. For it is written: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the works of his hands; and elsewhere: In the beginning, O Lord, thou didst found the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands. The same, therefore, are the works of the hands which are the works of God. There is therefore no distinction of operation according to the quality of bodily members, but a unity of power.

32. Works of the Fingers and Works of the Hands

But the works which are the works of the hands are the same as the works of the fingers; because likewise it is written: For I shall see thy heavens, the works of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast founded. What, then, is shown here to have been done less by the fingers than by the hands, since the fingers did the same as the hands; as it is written: For thou hast delighted me, O Lord, in thy handiwork, and in the works of thy hands I will rejoice.

33. The Hand as a Scriptural Figure of the Son

And yet, because we read that the hand is the Son (for it is written: Has not my hand made all these things? And elsewhere: I will set thee in a hole of the rock, and I will protect thee with my hand. I have put my hand under the covering of the rock—which pertains to the mystery of the incarnation, because the everlasting power of God took up the covering of the body), it is surely clear that Scripture has spoken of hand both concerning the Son of God and concerning the Holy Spirit.

34. The Finger as a Figure of the Son and Spirit

And again, because we read that the Spirit is the finger of God, we judge that they were called fingers in order to signify the Son and the Spirit. Finally, that he might recall that he had the sanctification both of the Son and of the Spirit, a certain holy man says: Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me.

35. The Spirit Reproves as the Father and Son Reprove

For why do we refuse the similarity of words, where we assert the unity of power; since the unity of power extends even to this, that the Spirit also reproves, just as the Father reproves and the Son reproves? For thus it is written: O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, nor chasten me in thy anger. Then in the forty-ninth psalm the Lord says thus: I will reprove thee, and set thy sins before thy face; so also concerning the Holy Spirit the Son said: But when I shall have gone, I will send the Paraclete to you: and when he comes he will reprove the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment.

36. Solomon's Judgment Between the Two Mothers

But to what does the madness of faithless men lead us, that we should seem to assert, as though it were doubtful, that the Holy Spirit reproves; when judges themselves cannot judge except through the Spirit? Consider that famous judgment of Solomon, which, amid the doubtful claims of the contenders—when one woman, having suffocated her own little one, wished to claim for herself the child of another, while the other defended her own son—detected the fraud in the very hidden thoughts, and the piety in maternal bowels, surely shone forth through the gift of the Holy Spirit. For no other sword could have pierced the hidden conscience of the women except that of the Holy Spirit, of which the Lord says: I came not to send peace, but a sword; because it is not by iron, but by the Spirit, that the inner mind is penetrable: For the Spirit of understanding is holy, one, manifold, subtle, mobile; and below: Beholding all things.

37. The True Mother Revealed by a Mother's Love

See what the prophet says, that it beholds all things. And so Solomon too foresaw, that he ordered that sword to be brought; because, pretending that he wished to divide the infant, he considered that the true mother would care more for her son than for her own comfort; and would prefer justice to grace, rather than grace to justice. But she who feigned the affection of a mother, blinded by the desire to win, would think little of his death, in which she did not know the loss to piety. And so that spiritual man, who judged all things (for the spiritual man judges all things), sought in the affections the nature which lay hidden in the words: and questioned piety, that it might reveal the truth. And so the mother prevailed by the affection of charity, which is the fruit of the Spirit.

38. Daniel and the Deliverance of Susanna

He judges in the prophet, because through the Spirit the word of wisdom is given: how then is it denied that the Holy Spirit can reprove the world of judgment, who removes the doubt of judgment, and grants the outcome? And. Daniel too, unless he had received the Spirit of God, could never have detected the adultery of lust, the lie of fraud. For when Susanna, assailed by the conspiracies of the elders, saw the mind of the people bent by regard for the elders, and, destitute of all help, alone among men conscious of her own chastity, prayed God as her judge: The Lord, it says, heard her voice, when she was being led away to perish: and the Lord stirred up the Holy Spirit of a young boy, whose name was Daniel. And so, according to the grace of the Holy Spirit received, he detected the wavering testimonies of the faithless; for it was no other than the operation of divine power, that his voice should betray those whose intention lay hidden.

41. Susanna's Silence and Trust Under False Accusation

Perceive, then, the sacred and heavenly miracle of the Holy Spirit. She who preferred to be chaste for herself rather than for the people: she who preferred to undergo the danger to her innocence rather than to her modesty: who, when accused, was silent: when condemned, held her peace, content with the judgment of her own conscience: who preserved the reverence of modesty even amid dangers, lest they should seem to have wrested wantonness from her, who had not been able to wrest chastity—when she called upon the Lord, she deserved the Spirit who revealed the hidden conscience of the elders.

42. The Chastity of Susanna, Sarah, and Abraham

Let the chaste learn not to fear calumny. For she who preferred the chastity of life did not suffer the loss of life, and won back the glory of chastity. So too Abraham, once bidden to go into foreign lands, was turned back neither by the danger to his wife's modesty, nor by the terror of death set before him, and preserved both his own life and the chastity of his wife. Therefore no one who has believed God has repented of it: and chastity increased devotion in Sarah, and devotion increased chastity.

43. The Holy Spirit of God Dwelling in Daniel

And lest anyone perhaps suppose, because Scripture says: God stirred up the Holy Spirit of a young boy, that he thinks the spirit in him was that of a man, not the Holy Spirit; let him read what follows, and he will find that Daniel received the Holy Spirit, and therefore prophesied. Finally, the king too preferred him, because he had spiritual grace. For thus he says: But thou, Daniel, canst do it; because the Holy Spirit of God is in thee. And below Scripture says: And Daniel was set over them; because a superior Spirit was in him. But even the Spirit of Moses was divided among those who were to judge.

44. Christ Judges and Avenges Through the Spirit

But why should we speak of the rest? We have received that the Lord Jesus himself, in the Spirit, not only judges, but also avenges. For he would not avenge himself upon Antichrist, unless he had first judged concerning his deserts, whom (as we read) the Lord Jesus will slay with the Spirit of his mouth. But here it is not a grace acquired, but the unity remains undivided; because neither can Christ be without the Spirit, nor the Spirit be without Christ. For the unity of the divine nature cannot be separated.

45. The Spirit Named a Sword of the Word

And since that example has come into the midst, that the Lord Jesus will slay with the Spirit of his mouth, the Spirit is understood as a certain sword of the Word. Finally, in the Gospel too, the Lord Jesus himself says: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For he came that he might give the Spirit, and therefore also in his mouth is a two-edged sword, surely spiritual grace. The Spirit of the Word, then, is a sword.

46. The Word Named a Sword of the Spirit

And that you may know there is no inequality, but unity of nature, the Word too is a sword of the Holy Spirit; for it is written: Taking the shield of faith, whereby you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

47. One Power in Word and Spirit

Since, then, the sword of the Word is the Holy Spirit, and the sword of the Holy Spirit is the Word of God; assuredly there is unity of power.

48. Grieving the Spirit and Provoking God

This unity we may consider also in other passages of Scripture. For whereas Ezekiel says to the people of the Jews: And you grieved me in all these things, says the Lord; Paul, to the new people, says in his epistle: Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you are sealed. Again, whereas Isaiah says of the Jews themselves: But they believed not, but provoked the Holy Spirit; David says of God: And they provoked the Most High in the dry land, and tempted God in their hearts.

49. Christ Too Was Tempted, According to Scripture

Take note also that, whereas Scripture elsewhere has said the Spirit was tempted, and God was tempted, the same also says that Christ was tempted; for you have the Apostle writing to the Corinthians: Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and perished by serpents. A just vengeance, that adversaries should feel the venoms, who did not revere the author.

50. The Bronze Serpent as a Figure of the Cross

And rightly did the Lord, when the bronze serpent was raised up, command that the wounds of the injured be healed; for the bronze serpent is an image of the cross; for although Christ was hung up in His own flesh, yet in Him He Himself was crucified to the world, and the world itself was crucified to Him: For, He says, the world is crucified to me, and I to the world. The world, then, was crucified in its own enticements; and therefore not a true, but a bronze serpent was raised up; because in the truth indeed of the body, but without the truth of sin, the Lord took on the likeness of a sinner; that by simulating the serpent through the slipperiness of human infirmity, having laid aside the spoils of the flesh, He might destroy the cunning of the true serpent. Through the cross of the Lord, therefore, which came to help in the avenging of temptation, I recognize the offense against the Trinity in the faithless, since I receive the medicine of the Trinity.

51. The Tempting of the Spirit in the Wilderness

Since, then, you have in the book of Moses that the Lord, being tempted, sent serpents among the people of the Jews, it is necessary either that you confess unity in the divine majesty of Father and Son and Holy Spirit; or certainly, since apostolic Scripture says the Spirit was tempted, by the name of "Lord" it assuredly designated the Spirit. That the Holy Spirit was tempted the apostle says, writing to the Hebrews; for thus you have it: For the Holy Spirit says this: Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the desert, where your fathers tempted me, proved and saw my works. Forty years was I near to this generation, and I said: These always err in heart; but they knew not my ways, as I swore in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest.

52. The Spirit Led Israel Through the Desert

Therefore according to the Apostle the Spirit was tempted. If He Himself was tempted, He Himself also directed the people of the Jews into the land of promise, as it is written: For he led them through the deep, as a horse through the desert, and they did not labor, and as cattle through the plain. The Spirit descended from the Lord, and directed them. And He Himself supplied the serene rain of heavenly nourishment, He Himself made fruitful with a fertile shower the daily harvest, which the earth had not brought forth, which no farmer had sown.

53. One Will and Power in God and the Spirit

Now let us look at the details individually. God had promised rest to the Jews; that rest the Spirit calls His own. God the Father recalls that He was tempted by the faithless; the Spirit likewise says that He was tempted by the same; because it is one temptation, by which one divinity of the Trinity was tempted by the sacrilegious. God condemns the people of the Jews, that they should not be able to reach the land flowing with milk and honey, that is, the rest of the resurrection: the same sentence the Spirit also pronounces in condemnation, saying: If they shall enter into my rest. There is, therefore, one sentence of will, one excellence of power.

54. The Spirit of the Lord Is the Spirit of Christ

Perhaps, however, someone might say that this example cannot be applied specifically to the Holy Spirit, unless in another place the Apostle Peter had also taught us that the Spirit too can be tempted by our sins; for thus you have it, said to the wife of Ananias: Why, indeed, have you agreed to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? For the Spirit of the Lord is Himself the Spirit of God; because the Holy Spirit is one, as also the Apostle Paul taught, saying: But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. He put first "the Spirit of God," and immediately added that the same is the Spirit of Christ. And when he had spoken of the Spirit, that we might understand that where the Holy Spirit is, there Christ is, he added: But if Christ be in you.

55. Christ and the Spirit Are Never Separate

Then, just as here we understand that where the Spirit is, there also is Christ; so also elsewhere he shows that where Christ is, there also is the Holy Spirit. For when he had said: Do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ; elsewhere he says: For I think that I also have the Spirit of God. Inseparable, therefore, is the unity, because wherever either the Father, or Christ, or the Spirit is signified, Scripture testifying; there is the whole fullness of the Trinity.

56. Peter's Rebuke to Ananias and Sapphira

But Peter himself too, in the example we have proposed, first said "Holy Spirit," and afterward said "Spirit of the Lord"; for thus you have it: Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart, that you should lie to the Holy Spirit, and by fraud keep back part of the price of the land? Whilst it remained, did it not remain to you? And after it was sold, was it not in your own power? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God And below, to his wife he says: Why have you agreed to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?

57. To Lie to the Spirit Is to Lie to God

First we understand that he called the Holy Spirit the Spirit of the Lord. Then, since he had first said "Holy Spirit," and added: You have not lied to men, but to God; it is necessary that in the Holy Spirit you either understand the unity of divinity, since when the Spirit is tempted, God is deceived: or if you try to exclude the unity of divinity, then according to the words of Scripture you yourself believe the Spirit to be God.

58. One Truth and Knowledge in Father and Spirit

For if we understand it as expressed both of the Spirit and of the Father, we perceive assuredly the unity of truth and knowledge in God the Father and the Holy Spirit; because falsehood is detected by the Holy Spirit in the same way as by God the Father. But if we take both statements as concerning the Spirit, why, faithless one, do you attempt to deny what you read? Confess, therefore, either the unity of the divinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, or the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Whichever you shall have said, you have said both in God; because both unity establishes divinity, and divinity unity.

59. Arians Erase God Is a Spirit from the Codices

Nor only in this place does Scripture evidently testify to the θεότητα, that is, the deity, of the Holy Spirit; but the Lord Himself also said in the Gospel: For God is a Spirit. This passage, Arians, you so expressly testify to be about the Spirit, that you remove it from your own codices: and would that it were only from your own, and not also from the codices of the Church that you took it away! For at that time when Auxentius of impious infidelity had occupied the Church of Milan with arms and army, or when the Church of Sirmium was assailed by Valens and Ursacius, their bishops wavering, this falsification and your sacrilege was detected in the ecclesiastical codices. And perhaps you have done this also in the East.

60. The Erasure That Exposed Their Impiety

And letters indeed you could erase, but faith you could not take away. That erasure exposed you the more, that erasure condemned you the more; for you were not able to blot out the truth, but that erasure blotted out your own names from the book of life. Why was it removed: For God is a Spirit; if it did not pertain to the Spirit? For if you wish it to be understood as expressed of God the Father, then you also deny God the Father, whom you think should be deleted. Choose whichever you will: in either case the snare of your impiety will bind you, if you confess yourselves to be heathens, either by denying the Father as God, or the Spirit. Your confession, therefore, is held fast, whereby you have blotted out the oracle, while you feared the example.

61. Blotted Out in Iniquity, Not in Grace

You have indeed blotted it out in your breasts and minds: but the divine oracle is not blotted out, the Holy Spirit is not blotted out, but He turns away from impious minds: grace is not blotted out, but iniquity; for it is written: I am, I am he, who blots out your iniquities. Finally, Moses, praying for the people, said: Blot me out of your book, if you spare not this people. Yet he was not blotted out; because he had no iniquity, but overflowed with grace.

62. Convicted by Their Own Crafty Confession

You are, therefore, convicted by your own confession, of that which you cannot say was done wisely, but craftily. For you craftily recognized that you would be convicted by the testimony of this passage, and that your arguments could not agree against that testimony. For to what other sense could the meaning of this passage be turned, since the whole sequence of the reading is about the Spirit?

63. Nicodemus and the New Birth of Water and Spirit

Nicodemus asks about regeneration; the Lord answers: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And that He might show that one generation is according to the flesh, another according to the Spirit, He added: That which is born of the flesh is flesh; because it is born of the flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit; because God is a Spirit. Follow, then, the whole sequence of the reading, and you will find that the Lord has excluded your impiety by the fullness of His statement. Marvel not, He says, that I said to you, You must be born again. The Spirit breathes where he will, and you hear his voice; but you know not whence he comes, or whither he goes; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

64. Baptism and Rebirth Through the Holy Spirit

Who is it that is born of the Spirit, and that is made Spirit, but he who is renewed by the Spirit of his mind? This is assuredly he who is regenerated through water and the Holy Spirit; since through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit we receive the hope of eternal life. And elsewhere the Apostle Peter says: But you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Who, then, is baptized with the Holy Spirit, but he who is born again through water and the Holy Spirit? Therefore the Lord spoke of the Holy Spirit when He said: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And therefore, that which He spoke of our being reborn in the earlier part, He determined in the latter part to be by that same Spirit through whom He spoke of us being reborn. This is the Lord's own sentence: I rely upon the text, not on argument.

65. Christ Born and Reborn of the Holy Spirit

Yet I ask why, if it is not doubted that we are reborn through the Holy Spirit, it should be doubted that we are born of the Holy Spirit; since the Lord Jesus Himself was both born and reborn of the Holy Spirit? Whom, if you confess to have been born of the Holy Spirit, because you cannot deny it: yet you deny that He was reborn; great is the folly, that you should confess what is peculiar to God alone: while you deny what is common to men. And therefore it is well said to you, what was said to the Jews: If I have told you earthly things, and you believe not; how will you believe, if I shall tell you heavenly things?

66. The Greek Text Confirms Born of the Spirit

Yet nevertheless we find both passages so written in the Greek, that it says not "through the Spirit," but "of the Spirit." For thus it reads: Ἀμὴν, ἀμὴν, λέγω σοι, ἐὰν μή τις γεννήθη ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ Πνεύματος, that is, of water and of the Spirit. Since, therefore, it ought not be doubted that it is written of the Holy Spirit, that which is born of the Spirit; there is no doubt that the Holy Spirit is also God, according to what is written, that God is a Spirit.

67. The Spirit, Water, and Blood Are One

Elsewhere too, that the same evangelist might disclose that he wrote this of the Holy Spirit: Through water, he says, and the Spirit came Christ Jesus, not in water only, but through water and blood. And the Spirit gives testimony, because the Spirit is truth; for there are three that bear witness, the Spirit, the water, and the blood: and these three are one.

68. Distinct Offices of Spirit, Water, and Blood

Hear how they are witnesses: the Spirit renews the mind, the water avails for the washing, the blood pertains to the price. For the Spirit made us sons of God through adoption, the water of the sacred font washed us, the blood of the Lord redeemed us. Therefore we obtain the one testimony invisible, the other visible, in the spiritual sacrament; because the Spirit bears witness to our spirit. Although in both there is fulness of the sacrament, yet there is a distinction of office: therefore where there is a distinction of office, there is by no means an equality of testification.

69. The Objection That God Is Spirit Means the Father

But perhaps it may be alleged that, in the later parts of this very book, the Lord again called Spirit God, but meant God the Father. For thus you have it in the Gospel: Now is the hour when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and truth. For the Father also seeks such to worship him. God is a Spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in Spirit and truth. For by this example you wish not only to deny the divinity of the Spirit thus sanctioned, but also to derive from the fact that God is worshipped in the Spirit an argument for the Spirit's subjection.

70. Spirit as a Name for Spiritual Grace

To this passage I will reply briefly, because "spirit" is very often put for spiritual grace, just as the Apostle also said: For the Spirit itself asks for us with groanings that cannot be uttered, that is, spiritual grace; unless perhaps you were able to hear the groanings of the Holy Spirit. So here too God is worshipped, not in malice of heart, but in spiritual grace. For into a malevolent soul wisdom does not enter; because no one can say the Lord Jesus, except in the Holy Spirit. And straightway he added: But there are diversities of graces.

71. The Spirit's Undivided Fullness of Grace

This therefore cannot pertain to the fulness, nor to a portion, of the Spirit, since neither does the human mind grasp his fulness, nor is he divided into any sections of himself: but he pours in the gift of spiritual grace, in which God is worshipped, just as he is also worshipped in truth; for none worships except one who draws in, with pious affection, the truth of his divinity. Nor indeed does he thereby comprehend Christ personally, or the Holy Spirit personally.

72. A Parallel Argument From Christ and Truth

Or if you think that what is said of the Spirit seems to be said personally, so too of Christ: then God is likewise worshipped in truth, just as he is worshipped in the Spirit. Either therefore there is a similar subjection—which God forbid you should believe—and the Son too is not worshipped; or, what is true, there is a similar grace of unity, and the Spirit is worshipped.

73. Answering the Arians on Worship of the Spirit

Let us here then gather up and conclude the impious questions of the Arians. For if they therefore deny that the Spirit is to be worshipped, because God is worshipped in the Spirit; let them then deny that truth is to be worshipped, because God is worshipped in truth. For although there are very many truths, since it is written: The truths are diminished from among the sons of men; yet they are given from the divine truth, which is Christ, who says: I am the way, the truth, and the life. Therefore if in this passage they understand "truth" in its ordinary usage, let them also understand spiritual grace, and there is no offense; or if they take "truth" as Christ, let them deny that he is to be worshipped.

74. Mary's Worship and the Reversal of Eve's Sin

But they are refuted by the deeds of the pious, by the course of the Scriptures. For Mary worshipped Christ, and therefore was sent as the herald of the resurrection to the apostles, loosing the hereditary bond, and the immense sin of the female sex. For this the Lord wrought in mystery, that where sin had abounded, grace might also abound the more. And rightly was a woman sent to men, that she who had first announced sin to man, might first announce the grace of the Lord.

75. Apostles and Angels at Worship

The apostles also worshipped; and therefore, because they bore testimony of the faith, they received the mastership of the faith. The angels also worshipped, of whom it is written: And let all his angels worship him.

76. Worshipping the Footstool of Christ's Feet

And they worship not only his divinity, but also the footstool of his feet, as it is written: And worship the footstool of his feet; for it is holy. But if they deny that in Christ even the mysteries of the incarnation are to be worshipped, in which we perceive, as it were, certain footprints of divinity expressed, and certain paths of the heavenly Word; let them read that the apostles also worshipped him rising again in the glory of the flesh.

77. The Spirit Served and Worshipped Like Christ

Therefore if nothing derogates from Christ in that God is worshipped in Christ—because Christ too is worshipped—so nothing at all derogates from the Spirit, that God is worshipped in the Spirit; because the Spirit too is worshipped, as the Apostle said: We serve the Spirit of God. For he who serves also worships, as was said above: The Lord your God you shall worship, and him alone shall you serve.

78. What the Prophet Means by Footstool

But lest anyone should seem to evade the example proposed, let us consider by what reasoning what the Prophet says—Worship the footstool of his feet—may be seen to pertain to the mystery of the Lord's incarnation; for we ought not to estimate "footstool" according to human usage. For God is neither corporeal, nor is he not immeasurable; so that we should think a footstool is set beneath his feet as a support. Nor do we read that anything besides God is to be worshipped; for it is written: The Lord your God you shall worship, and him alone shall you serve. How then would the Prophet, nurtured under the Law and instructed in the Law, command something contrary to the Law? This is no small question, and therefore let us consider more carefully what the footstool is. For we read elsewhere: Heaven is my throne, and earth is the footstool of my feet. But neither is the earth to be worshipped by us, since it is a creature of God.

79. The Footstool as Christ's Flesh Formed by the Spirit

Let us see, however, whether the Prophet does not mean that earth to be worshipped which the Lord Jesus took up in the assumption of flesh. So then by "footstool" is understood the earth; and by "earth," the flesh of Christ, which even today we worship in the mysteries, and which the apostles, as we said above, worshipped in the Lord Jesus; for Christ is not divided, but is one: nor, when he is worshipped as the Son of God, is it denied that he was born of the Virgin. Since therefore the mystery of the incarnation is to be worshipped, and the incarnation is the work of the Spirit, as it is written: The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you; and that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God: without doubt the Holy Spirit too is to be worshipped, since he is worshipped who according to the flesh was born of the Holy Spirit.

80. Mary the Temple, Not the God of the Temple

And lest anyone divert this to the Virgin Mary: Mary was the temple of God, not the God of the temple. And therefore he alone is to be worshipped who worked in the temple.

81. One Power Worshipped in Father, Son, and Spirit

Nothing therefore stands in the way, that God is worshipped in the Spirit; because the Spirit too is worshipped. Although if we consider the very words, what else ought we to understand in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, but the unity of the same power? For what is it, "In Spirit and truth one must worship"? Unless indeed you refer this to spiritual grace, and to the true faith of conscience: but, as we have said, you take it personally (if this word is at all worthy of the expression of the divine majesty) of Christ and of the Spirit.

82. The Father Worshipped in Christ Through Unity of Power

What then is meant by "the Father is worshipped in Christ," except that the Father is in Christ, and the Father speaks in Christ, and the Father abides in Christ? Not indeed as a body in a body; for God is not a body: nor as something confused in something confused; but as the true in the true, God in God, light in light, as it were the eternal Father in the co-eternal Son. Not therefore is any insertion of body understood, but a unity of power. Therefore through the unity of power Christ is co-worshipped in the Father, when God the Father is worshipped in Christ. Likewise then, through the unity of that same power, the Spirit is co-worshipped in God, while God is worshipped in the Spirit.

83. All Things Made Through the Son, Not Apart From the Father

Let us treat still more carefully the force and meaning of this word, and gather its proper sense from other passages: You have made all things, he says, in Wisdom. What then do we here understand—that Wisdom is without part in the things made? But all things were made through him. And David says: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established. Therefore he who calls the Son of God the author even of heavenly things, spoke thus, that all things were made in the Son, in such a way that in the restoration of the works he by no means separated the Son from the Father, but joined him to the Father.

84. In Him, Through Him, With Him: One Sense

Paul also says: Because in him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Does he, when he says "in him," deny "through him"? He certainly did not deny it, but affirmed it. Finally elsewhere too he said: One Lord Jesus, through whom are all things. Therefore when he says "through him," has he denied that all things were created in him, of whom he says all things are? These words have this force: "in him," and "with him"; so that one and the same, not a contrary, sense is to be understood in them. Which he also made clear further on, saying: All things were created through him and in him; for these three—with him, and through him, and in him—Scripture testifies are one in Christ, as we said above. For you have it that all things were created both through him and in him.

85. The Son as Co-Creator, the Trinity Worshipped Together

Understand also that the Father was with him, and he was with the Father, when all things were being made. Wisdom says: When he prepared the heavens, I was with him; when he made the fountains of waters. And in the Old Testament, by saying, Father, "Let us make", he showed that the Son is to be worshipped with himself, as the maker of all things. As, therefore, things are said to be created in the Son, whose creator the Son is understood to be; so also, when it is said that God is worshipped in truth, it ought to be understood, by the same property of the expression frequently applied in this manner, that the Son also is worshipped. Likewise then the Spirit too is worshipped; because God is worshipped in the Spirit. Therefore the Father is worshipped both with the Son and with the Spirit, because the Trinity is worshipped.

86. The Trinity's Inexplicable Majesty

Does anyone then deny that the divinity of the eternal Trinity is to be worshipped? Since the divine Scriptures also express the inexplicable majesty of the Trinity, as the Apostle says elsewhere: For God, who said that light should shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts, for the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

87. The Apostles Fall Down in Worship at the Transfiguration

Surely the apostles saw this glory, when the Lord Jesus shone on the mountain with the light of his divinity: The apostles saw, it says, and fell upon their faces. Do you think they, even as they fell, did not worship; when they could not bear with bodily eyes the brightness of the divine light, and the splendor of the eternal light dimmed the gaze of mortal sight? Or what else did they say at that time, seeing his glory, but: Come let us worship, and fall down before him? For God has shone in our hearts, for the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

88. The Spirit Identified as the One Who Shone

Who then is it that has shone, that we might know God in the face of Christ Jesus? For he said, God has shone, that the glory of God might be known in the face of Christ Jesus: whom do we suppose is thereby declared, other than the Spirit? Or who else besides the Holy Spirit is there, to whom the power of divinity is attributed? For those who exclude the Spirit must necessarily introduce another, who together with the Father and the Son receives the glory of divinity.

89. The Apostle's Testimony to the Spirit as God

Let us repeat then the same words: God is he who has shone, for the illumination of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You have Christ clearly expressed. Whose glory then is said to illuminate, if not the Spirit's? He has therefore expressed God himself, since he said "the glory of God": if it is the Father's, then it remains that he who said that light should shine out of darkness, and has shone in our hearts, is to be understood as the Holy Spirit; for we cannot venerate another together with the Father and the Son. If therefore you understand the Spirit, and the Apostle has called him God; then it is necessary that you too, who deny it, confess the deity of the Spirit.

90. The Holy Spirit's Temple in Believers

But how shamelessly you deny it, when you have read that the Holy Spirit has a temple! For it is written: You are the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you. God then has a temple, a creature does not truly have a temple. But the Spirit has a temple, since he dwells in us. For it is written: That your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

91. One Temple Shared by Father, Son, and Spirit

But in the temple He dwells not as a priest, nor as a minister, but as God; since the Lord Jesus Himself said: I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And David says: The Lord is in his holy temple. Therefore the Spirit dwells in his holy temple, as the Father dwells, and the Son also dwells, who says: I and the Father will come, and will make our abode with him. We observe, therefore, that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit remain in one and the same unity through the same nature. Therefore it belongs to divine power, He who dwells in the temple; for as we are the temple of the Father and the Son, so also of the Holy Spirit: not many temples, but one temple; because it is the temple of one power.

92. The Spirit's Communion With Father and Son

But the Father abides in us through the Spirit, whom He has given us. How then can a dissimilar nature abide at the same time? Surely it cannot. But the Holy Spirit abides with the Father and the Son. Whence also the Apostle joined the communication of the Holy Spirit with the grace of Jesus Christ and the charity of God, saying: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God, and the communication of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

93. Unity of Divinity Admits No Plural Gods

But let us excuse you from ignorance, even if we do not excuse you from fault. For according to our judgment, because there is one God, there is one divinity, and a unity of power is understood. Just as we say one God, and confess the Father indeed by the name of deity, without denying the Son; so too we do not exclude the Holy Spirit from the unity of deity, and we do not assert three gods, but deny it; because plurality is not made by unity, but by division of power. For how does the unity of divinity admit of plurality, since plurality belongs to number, but the divine nature does not admit of number?

95. Sanctification in the Spirit Who Is Called Lord

Who then is the Lord, who may multiply us, and make us abound before God and our Father at the coming of the Lord Jesus? He named the Father, and he named the Son: whom then, besides the Spirit, did he join with the Father and the Son? Who is the Lord who confirms our hearts in sanctification? For sanctification is a spiritual grace, as also he said below: In sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth.

96. The Dove at Christ's Baptism

Whom then do you think is here called Lord, other than the Spirit? Could not God the Father have taught you, who said: Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit? For the Spirit descended in the form of a dove; that He might both bear witness of wisdom, and fulfill the sacrament of the spiritual washing, and show Himself of one operation with the Father and the Son.

97. Paul's Deliberate Naming of the Spirit as Lord

And lest you judge that anything fell from the Apostle through imprudence, but rather that he, knowing and prudent and filled with the Holy Spirit, signified the Lord whom he perceived to be God, he repeated this same thing in the second epistle to the Thessalonians, saying: But may the Lord direct your hearts in the love of God, and the patience of Christ. If it is the love of God, and the patience of Christ, who is the lord who directs must be shown, if we deny the direction of the Holy Spirit.

98. The Spirit of Truth Leads into All Truth

But we cannot deny it, since the Lord said concerning Him: I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will lead you into all truth. And David says of Him: Your good Spirit shall lead me into the right way.

99. The Spirit's Coming Brings the Church to Maturity

See what the voice of the Lord has declared concerning the Holy Spirit. The Son of God came, and because He had not yet poured out the Spirit, He declared that we were living as little children without the Spirit. He said the Spirit was to come, who would make the little children stronger, namely by the growth of spiritual age. This He set forth, not that He might prefer the power of the Spirit, but that in the knowledge of the Trinity He might show the fullness of power.

100. No Fourth Person Besides the Spirit as Lord

It is necessary, therefore, either that you name some fourth being whom you must understand besides the Spirit, or else you must surely judge that no other Lord is meant than the Spirit designated.

101. Now the Lord Is the Spirit

But if you demand an evident formulation of words, by which Scripture has recorded the Spirit as Lord, this too could not have escaped you; for it is written: Now the Lord is the Spirit. And that this is indeed said of the Holy Spirit, the whole tenor of the reading shows. And so let us consider the Apostolic words: As often as Moses is read, he says, a veil is placed over their heart: but when they shall have turned to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

102. The Spirit of the Lord Transforms into Glory

Not only, then, did he call the Spirit Lord, but he also added: Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. So then, we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord, that is, we who have already been turned to the Lord, so that with spiritual understanding, as in a certain mirror of the Scriptures, we might see the glory of the Lord, now from this glory which turns us to the Lord, we are transformed into that heavenly glory. Therefore, since the Lord is He to whom we are turned, and the Lord is the Spirit by whom we are transformed, we who have been turned to the Lord—the Holy Spirit is surely designated as Lord; for He it is who receives those who are turned, He who transforms them. For how could He transform those whom He had not received?

103. The Unity of the Lord and the Spirit in Power

Yet why do we seek an express form of words, where we perceive an express form of unity? For even if you distinguish the Lord and the Spirit, you cannot deny that where the Lord is, there also is the Spirit: and whoever has been turned to the Lord will have been turned to the Spirit. If you cavil at the letter, you do not deny the unity: if you wish to separate the unity, you confess the Spirit Himself to be Lord of power.

104. One Lordship Shown Through the Son and Father

But perhaps you may say again: If I call the Spirit Lord, I shall declare three Lords. When you call the Son Lord, do you either deny the Son, or confess two Lords? Far be it; for the Son Himself said: You cannot serve two masters. But He surely denied neither Himself nor the Father as Lord; for He also called the Father Lord, as you have: I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. And He recorded Himself as Lord, as we read in the Gospel: You call me Lord and Master, and you say well; for so I am. But He did not say two Lords; rather He showed that He did not say two Lords, when He forewarns: You cannot serve two masters. For there are not two lords, where there is one lordship; because the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father; and therefore the Lord is one.

105. The Law and the Apostle Confess One Lord

So too the Law taught: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord: that is, unchangeable, ever remaining in the unity of power, ever the same, changed by no addition, by no diminution. So Moses said one, and yet recorded that the same Lord had rained from the Lord. The Apostle too says: May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord. The Lord rains from the Lord, the Lord grants mercy from the Lord: the Lord is not distinguished there where He rains from the Lord; nor is He separated here where He shows mercy from the Lord, but in both places the unity of lordship is expressed.

106. The Lord Said to My Lord

In the Psalms too you have: The Lord said to my Lord. Nor did He therefore deny His own Father as Lord, because He recorded the Son as His Lord: but He therefore called the Son His Lord, lest you should believe the Son to have been the prophet's, rather than the Lord's: which the Lord Himself made clear in the Gospel, saying: If then David in the spirit calls him Lord, how is he his son? David says Lord in the spirit, he does not say the Spirit says it. Or if they cavil on this ground, because he called the Spirit Lord, it is necessary by an equal sacrilege that they should seem to assert the Son of God also to be the Son of the Holy Spirit.

107. Neither Two Lords Nor Three Lords

Therefore, just as we do not say two Lords, when we designate both the Father and the Son; so neither do we say three Lords, when we confess the Spirit as Lord. For just as it is sacrilege to say three Lords or Gods, so also it is full of sacrilege to say two Lords or Gods; because there is one God, one Lord, one Holy Spirit: and whoever is God, is Lord: and whoever is Lord, is God: because both in lordship there is divinity, and in divinity there is lordship.

108. Father and Son Both Lord and God

Finally, you have read the Father as both Lord and God: O Lord my God, I will cry to you, hear me. And you have the Son as both Lord and God, as you have read in the Gospel, that when Thomas had touched the side of Christ, he said: My Lord and my God. Therefore, as the Father is God, and the Son is Lord: so also the Son is God, and the Father is Lord. The pious signification is exchanged, the divine nature is not exchanged, but the grace remains unchangeable. For these are not gifts conferred by generosity, but the natural pleasures of love, because both unity has propriety, and propriety has unity.

110. The Threefold Trisagion and the Trinity

Therefore all these things which we believe to be holy proclaim that same holiness alone. The Cherubim and Seraphim with unwearied voices praise and say: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of Sabaoth. They do not say it once, lest you should believe in singularity: they do not say it twice, lest you should exclude the Spirit: they do not say "holy ones," lest you should think plurality: but they repeat it three times, and say the same thing, that even in the hymn you may understand the distinction of the Trinity, and the unity of divinity: when they say this, they proclaim God.

111. The Spirit Praised as Holy with Father and Son

We too find nothing more precious by which we can proclaim God, than to call Him holy. Whatever else is inferior to God, is inferior to the Lord. Therefore consider from this also whether anything is to be detracted from the Holy Spirit, whose name is the praise of God. For thus the Father is praised, thus the Son is praised also, just as the Spirit also is named and praised. The Seraphim praise, the whole choir of the blessed praises, so as to call God holy, the Son holy, the Spirit holy.

112. The Spirit Invoked with Father and Son in Baptism

How then does He not have all things that are God's, who together with the Father and the Son is named by the priests in baptism, and is invoked with the Father and the Son in the offerings, is proclaimed with the Father and the Son by the Seraphim in the heavens, dwells with the Father and the Son in the saints, is poured into the just, is breathed into the prophets. Whence also in divine Scripture everything is called θεόπνευστος God-breathed on this account, that God inspired what the Spirit has spoken.

113. What the Spirit Does Not Have

Or if they refuse to grant that the Holy Spirit has all things that are God's, and can do all things, let them say what He does not have, or what He cannot do. For just as the Son has all things, nor does the Father grudge that He should naturally give all things to the Son, who gave what is greater than all things, as the Scripture testifies, saying: What my Father has given me is greater than all; so too the Spirit of Christ has what is greater than all things, because justice knows no envy.

114. The Hand of God and the Unity of Power

And so if we attend carefully, here too we grasp the unity of divine power. The Father, he says, what he has given me is greater than all things: and no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one. For if we rightly showed above that the hand of God is the Holy Spirit, that same hand is surely the Father's, which is also the Son's hand; since the same Spirit of the Father is the Spirit of the Son. Therefore, just as it is not snatched from the Father, so it is not snatched from the Son, so it is not snatched from the Spirit either—whoever of us has received eternal life in this name of the Trinity.

115. The Spirit Receives from the Son Without Diminishment

From this very fact too, that the Father is said to have given to the Son, and the Spirit is said to have received from the Son; because it is written: He shall glorify me, because he shall receive of mine, and shall announce it to you (which seems to be said rather of the gift of dispensation, than of the right of divine power, because whom the Son redeemed, the Spirit also received to sanctify); from these very words, I say, from which they contrive their calumny, the unity of divinity is perceived, not any deficiency of bestowal.

116. The Son's Equality with the Father Through Generation

The Father gave through generation, not through adoption: He gave as it were what was in Himself by the right of divine nature, not as though by the grace of liberality, what was lacking. And therefore, because the Son thus acquired the peoples as the Father, thus the Son gives life as the Father, He expressed His equality with the Father by the unity of power, saying: I and the Father are one. For when He says, I and the Father, equality is revealed: when He says, We are one, unity is declared. Equality excludes confusion, unity excludes separation: equality distinguishes the Father and the Son, unity does not separate the Father and the Son.

117. Answering Sabellius, Photinus, and the Arians

Therefore when he says, I and the Father, he repels the Sabellian; because he called himself one, the Father another: he repels the Photinian, because he joined himself with God the Father. He repels the former by what precedes, because he said, I and the Father: he repels the Arians by what follows, because he says, We are one; yet both in what precedes and in what follows he cuts down the heretical savagery of the Sabellians; because he said we are one, not I am one: and of the Arians; because he said I and the Father, not the Father and I. This indeed was not for the sake of stubbornness, but of piety and foreknowledge; lest we should suppose there was error of order. For unity knows no order, equality knows no degree: nor does it befall the Son of God, that through stubbornness the very teacher of piety should injure piety.

118. The Spirit Leads Jesus into the Desert to Fast

It is worthwhile therefore to note in what place the Lord discussed these things; for often his oracles are to be judged from the qualities of the places in which he sojourned. About to fast, he is led by the Spirit, as we read, into the desert, that he might empty out the devil's temptations. For although it is praiseworthy to have lived in self-restraint even amid abundance of resources; yet in riches and delights the enticement of temptation is more frequent. Finally the tempter, to tempt, promises riches: and the Lord, to conquer, nourishes hunger. Nor do I deny that continence can exist amid riches: but even though he who sails the sea often escapes, yet he is more exposed to danger than he who has refused to sail.

119. The Mountain, the Fields, and the Garden

Let us see the rest. About to promise the kingdom of heaven, Jesus goes up a mountain. Elsewhere he leads his disciples through the sown fields, about to sow in their affections the heavenly crop of precepts; that the fruitful harvest of souls might grow golden. About to complete the offices of the flesh he had taken up, when he now saw perfection in his disciples, whom he had grounded by the root of his words, he enters a garden, that he might plant new olive-trees in the house of the Lord, and water the just man now flourishing like the palm, and the fruitful vine, with the stream of his own blood.

120. The Portico of Solomon and the Heart's Innocence

In this place too, in the portico of Solomon he was walking on the day of dedication, as we read, that is, in the breast of the wise and peaceable man Christ was walking, about to dedicate his affection to himself. What this portico is, the Prophet teaches, saying: I walked in the innocence of my heart in the midst of your house. We have, then, within us the house of God, we have courts, we have also porticoes, we have also broad streets; for it is written: And let your waters overflow in your streets. Widen, then, this portico of your heart with the Word of God, who says to you: Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

121. The Jews Take Up Stones at This Saying

Therefore, as the Word of God walks in the heart of the wise and peaceable man, let us hear what he says: I and the Father are one. He will not say this in the breast of the disturber and the fool; because The animal man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is folly to him. The narrow breasts of the impious do not grasp the greatness of faith. Finally the Jews, hearing: I and the Father are one; took up stones to stone him.

122. Stoning Christ Through Unbelief

Whoever cannot hear this is a Jew: whoever cannot hear this stones Christ with stones rougher than any weight of his own faithlessness; and, if you believe me, wounds Christ. For although he now can no longer feel the wound: For now we know Christ no longer according to the flesh; yet he who rejoices in the piety of the Church is stoned by the impiety of the Arians.

123. Peter's Faith and Judas's Betrayal

Good it is for me, Lord, the law of your mouth; I keep your precept. That you are one with the Father you yourself have said. Because Peter believed this, he received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and, secure of himself, forgave sins; because Judas did not believe this, he strangled himself with the noose of his own impiety. O hard stones of the unbelievers' words! O shapeless noose of the traitor, but more shapeless still the price of the Jews! O wicked silver, by which the just man is either bought for death, or sold! Joseph was sold, Jesus Christ was bought: the one into slavery, the other into death. Detestable inheritance, deadly auction, which either sells a brother into injury, or bids for the Lord unto ruin, the Redeemer of the salvation of all.

124. Joseph as a Type of Christ the Servant

Two things, then, which are more excellent than all others, Judea violated: faith and piety; but in both, Christ, the author of faith and piety. For in the patriarch Joseph there was a type of Christ, and in the truth of his own body, Christ: Who did not think it robbery to be equal to God, but took the form of a servant; undertaking servitude on account, doubtless, of our fall, and not shrinking from the passion.

125. The Twenty and the Thirty Pieces of Gold

In one place he is bought for twenty pieces of gold, in another for thirty. For how could his true price be comprehended, whose merit cannot be defined? There is error in the price, because there is error in the zeal. For twenty pieces of gold he is sold in the Old Testament, for thirty in the Gospel; for truth is more precious than type, grace more generous than discipline: the presence more abundant than the Law; because the Law promised the coming, and the coming fulfilled the Law.

126. Prices of Servitude and of the Cross

For twenty pieces of gold the Ishmaelites buy, for thirty the Jews. Nor is this figure a mediocre one. The faithless are more generous unto sacrilege than the faithful unto salvation. Yet it is fitting to consider the quality of each contract. Twenty pieces of gold are the price of servitude, thirty pieces of gold are of the cross. For although the mysteries of the assumption and of the passion are alike to be admired, yet the fullness of faith is in the sacrament of the passion. Not indeed do I esteem less the birth from the holy Virgin: but I receive with more gratitude the sacrament of the blessed body. What is more merciful than that he gave me his own injuries? Yet it is more full, that he conferred upon us so much; that he who was not to die, because he was God, might die our death, that we might live by his Spirit.

127. Judas and the Ointment Worth Three Hundred Denarii

Finally, not without purpose did Judas Iscariot value that ointment at three hundred denarii: which indeed by the very definition of the price seemed to declare the cross of the Lord. Whence the Lord also says: For in pouring this ointment upon my body, she has done it for my burial. Why then did Judas value this more dearly? Because to sinners the remission of sins costs more, and forgiveness seems more precious. Finally you have it written: For he to whom much is forgiven loves more. Therefore even sinners themselves confess the grace of the Lord's passion, which they lost, and bear testimony to Christ, who persecuted Christ.

128. Judas's Bargain and the Cheap Sale of Christ

Or because wisdom does not enter into a malevolent soul; this too was speaking the disposition of the traitor, he valued the passion of the Lord's body more dearly, so as to call back all from faith by the enormity of the price. And therefore the Lord offered himself freely, lest the necessity of poverty should call anyone back from Christ. The patriarchs sold him cheaply, that all might buy him. Isaiah said: Whoever have no silver, go, buy, and drink: eat without silver; that he might acquire him who had no silver. O Judas the betrayer, you value the ointment of his passion at three hundred denarii, and you sell his passion for thirty denarii! Rich in valuation, cheap in crime.

129. Three Ways of Buying Christ

Therefore not all buy Christ at the same price. Photinus buys at one price, who buys unto death: the Arian at another, who buys unto injury: the catholic at another, who buys unto glory. But he buys without money, according to what is written: He who has no money, let him buy without price.

130. Not All Who Say Lord, Lord

Not all, he says, who say to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Although many call themselves Christians, they usurp the name, yet not all have the reward. Cain also offered sacrifice, and Judas received a kiss, but he heard: Judas, do you betray the Son of man with a kiss? That is, with the pledge of love you fulfill a crime, and with the instrument of peace you sow hatred, and by the office of charity you inflict death.

131. Against the Arians' Claim to the Name of Christ

Therefore let not the Arians flatter themselves with a usurped name, because they say they are Christians. The Lord will answer them: You put forward my name, and deny the substance: but I do not recognize my name where my everlasting divinity is not. It is not my name, which is divided from the Father, separated from the Spirit: I do not recognize my name where I do not recognize my doctrine: I do not recognize my name where I do not recognize my Spirit. For the Spirit does not know how to compare himself with the servitudes of the Father, which he created. Of which we have already said much.

132. The Four Signs of Divinity Stated

In sum, however, that at the end we may gather more expressly what has been said dispersedly; both from the rest, and especially from these four things above the rest, the manifest glory of divinity is proved: for God is known from this, either because he is without sin, or because he forgives sins: or because he is not a creature, but the creator: or because he does not worship, but is worshiped.

133. The Four Signs of Divinity Proved by Scripture

No one, then, is without sin, except the one God; for no one is without sin, except the one God. No one also forgives sins, except the one God; for it is likewise written: Who can forgive sins, but God alone? No one also can be the creator of all things, except him who is not a creature: but he who is not a creature is without doubt God; for it is written: They served the creature rather than the creator, who is God blessed forever. God also does not worship, but is worshiped; for it is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve.

134. Challenge to Show a Sin of the Spirit

Let us consider, then, whether the Holy Spirit has any of these things which bring testimony of divinity. Let us therefore treat first of this, that no one is without sin except the one God: and let us demand that they show what sin the Holy Spirit has.

135. The Spirit Is Undefiled and Without Sin

But they cannot show it, and they demand authority, that we teach by reading, that the Holy Spirit did not sin, just as it is read of the Son, that he committed no sin. And let them accept that we teach this by the authority of the Scriptures; for it is written: That in Wisdom is the Spirit of understanding, holy, one only, manifold, subtle, easily moving, eloquent, undefiled. Scripture says "undefiled": did it lie concerning the Son, that you should believe it lied concerning the Spirit? For the prophet said in the same place concerning Wisdom, that nothing defiled falls upon her. She herself is undefiled, and undefiled is her Spirit. Therefore if the Spirit has no sin, he is God.

136. Only What Is Without Sin Forgives Sin

But how can he be guilty of sin, who himself forgives sins? Therefore he committed no sin: and because he is without sin, he is not a creature. For every creature is liable to a capacity for sins: only the everlasting divinity is immune from sin and undefiled.

137. The Spirit's Power to Forgive Sins

Now let us see whether the Spirit forgives sins. But here there can be no doubt, since the Lord himself said: Receive the Holy Spirit: whose sins you shall forgive, they shall be forgiven. Behold, that through the Holy Spirit sins are forgiven. But men exercise their ministry for the remission of sins, they do not exercise the right of any power of their own. For it is not in their own name, but in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that they forgive sins. These ask, divinity grants; the service is human, but the bounty is of the power on high.

138. The Threefold Name in Baptism and Forgiveness

Through baptism also it is not doubtful that sins are forgiven: but in baptism there is the operation of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore if the Spirit forgives sin, since it is written: Who can forgive sins, but the one God; assuredly he who cannot be separated from the unity of the natural name, cannot also be separated from the power of God. But if he is not separated from the power of God, how is he separated from the appellation of God?

139. The Spirit as Creator, Not Creature

Let us now see whether he is a creature, or the creator? But since above we have most clearly proved him to be creator, because it is written: The divine Spirit who made me: and that the face of the earth is renewed through the Spirit, and it has been declared that without the Spirit all things wither away; it appears that the Spirit is creator. But who would doubt this, when, as we have shown above, not even the generation of the Lord assumed from the Virgin, which is more excellent than all creatures, is without the operation of the Spirit?

140. The Spirit as Co-Worker in Creation

Therefore the Spirit is not a creature, but is creator: and whoever is creator is certainly not a creature. And because he is not a creature, he is without doubt creator, who is a co-worker with the Father and the Son in all things. And if he is creator, then indeed the Apostle, in condemning the Gentiles, when he says: Because they served the creature rather than the Creator, who is God blessed for ever: and also when persuading, as we taught above, that the Holy Spirit must be served, showed him to be creator, and demonstrated that because he is creator he ought to be called God. This also he included in the epistle written to the Hebrews, saying: For he who created all things is God. Let them therefore say what it is that was made without the Father and the Son and the Spirit, or let them confess that the Spirit also is of one deity with the Father and the Son.

141. God Alone Is to Be Worshiped

He also taught that he whom he called Lord and God is to be adored. For whoever is God of the universe and Lord must certainly be adored by all; for thus it is written: You shall adore the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve.

142. The Spirit Does Not Adore but Is Served

Or let them say where they have read that the Spirit adores. For it was said of the Son of God: Let all his angels adore him: it is not read that the Spirit adores. For how can he adore, who is not among the servants and ministers, but who, together with the Father and the Son, has the servitude of the just made subject to him; because it is written: We serve the Spirit of God. He is therefore to be adored by us, whom the Apostle taught must be served by us: for whom we serve, him we also adore, according to what is written—that we may often repeat the same words: You shall adore the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve.

143. The Spirit Present in the Prophets Is Adored

Nor indeed has the Apostle omitted this, that he should say the Spirit also is to be adored. For since we have taught that the Spirit is in the prophets, and no one can doubt this, since prophecy is given through the Spirit, then certainly when he who is in the prophets is adored, the same Spirit is adored. Thus you have it: If the whole church come together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in one unlearned or unbelieving, will they not say that you are mad? But if all prophesy, and there come in one unlearned or unbelieving, he is convinced by all, he is judged by all. Also the secrets of his heart are made manifest; and so falling on his face, he will adore God, declaring that God is truly among you. It is God therefore who is adored, God who abides, and who speaks in the prophets: but the Spirit abides and speaks; therefore the Spirit also is adored.

144. The Spirit's Equal Share in Divine Power

Thus as the Father and the Son are one, because the Son has all things which the Father has: so also the Spirit is one with the Father and the Son, because he too knows all the things of God. For he did not wrest them away, lest it be an injury to the one losing them; he did not seize them, lest there be a loss to him from whom they seem taken. For he neither seized through need, nor wrested them away through the excellence of a stronger power, but he possesses them through the unity of power. Therefore if he works all these things, since one and the same Spirit works all things; how is he not God, who has all things which God has?

145. The Spirit's Possession of Divinity

Or let us consider what God has, that the Holy Spirit does not have. God the Father has divinity, the Son also has it, in whom dwells the fullness of divinity: the Spirit also has it; for it is written: The divine Spirit which is in my nostrils.

146. The Spirit Who Searches Hearts and Reins

God has the power to search the hearts and reins; for it is written: God, who searches the hearts and reins. The Son also has it, who said: Why do you think evil in your hearts? For Jesus knew their thoughts. The Spirit also has it, who even makes manifest to the prophets the hidden things of another's heart, as we said above, because the secrets of his heart are made manifest. And what wonder is it if he searches the hidden things of men, who searches even the deep things of God?

147. The Spirit as Truth and Light

God has it that he is truthful; for it is written: But let God be true, and every man a liar. And elsewhere it is written: God is faithful, who does not lie. Does the Spirit lie, who is the Spirit of truth; nay rather, whom we have shown to be called truth; since John also named him truth, as he did the Son? And in the psalm David says: Send forth your light and your truth; they have led me, and brought me to your holy mountain, and into your tabernacles. If here you think light is the Son, then the Spirit is truth; or if you think the Son is truth, then the Spirit is light.

148. The Name Above Every Name Belongs to the Spirit

God has a name above every name, and he gave it to the Son; as we read, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Let us consider whether the Spirit has this name. But it is also written: Go, baptize the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore he has the name above every name. What therefore the Father and the Son have, the Spirit also has, through the unity of the natural name.

149. The Spirit's Power to Raise the Dead

God has it that he raises the dead: For as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. But the Spirit also raises, through whom God raises, for it is written: He will also give life to your mortal bodies, through his Spirit that dwells in you. Yet lest you think the grace is weak, hear that the Spirit also raises; for the prophet Ezekiel says: Come, Spirit, and breathe upon these dead, and they shall live. And I prophesied as he commanded me, and the spirit of life entered into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, a very great congregation. And below God says: You shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall open your graves; that I may bring my people out of their graves: and I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live.

150. The Life-Giving Spirit Present to All

Since he said his Spirit, did he mean any other than the Holy Spirit? For he would not have called a fleeting breath his own spirit, nor could this spirit come from the four quarters of the world; for the blowing of the winds which we see belongs to a part, not to the whole; and the spirit by which we live belongs to individuals, not to all: but the Holy Spirit is such that he is over all, and in all. So from the words of the prophet it is possible to see how the bones, whose framework of limbs had long ago been dissolved and scattered, return, by the life-giving Spirit, into the form of a revived body; and how the ashes coalesce into their own joints, animated first by the sense of coming together, before being reformed into the appearance of living.

151. The Spirit's Power Compared to Christ's Resurrection

Do we not recognize, in the likeness of the deed, the unity of divine power? Thus does the Spirit raise, just as the Lord also raised at his own passion; when suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, the tombs of the dead were opened, and revived bodies rose from their graves, and, the stench of death wiped away and the fragrance of life restored, the ashes of the expiring took on the face of the living.

152. The Spirit Possesses All That God Has

The Spirit therefore has what Christ has: he has therefore what God has; since all things that the Father has, the Son also has; and therefore he said: All things that the Father has are mine.

153. John's Vision of the River of Living Water

Nor is that a small matter, that we read of a river going forth from the throne of God. For thus you have it, as John the evangelist says: And he showed me a river of living water, bright as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb: in the midst of its street, and on either side, the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree for the healing of all nations.

154. The River Identified as the Holy Spirit

This is certainly the river proceeding from the throne of God, that is, the Holy Spirit, whom he drinks who believes in Christ, as he himself says: If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink: He who believes in me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Now this he said of the Spirit. Therefore the Spirit is a river.

155. The Spirit's Place at the Throne of God

He is, then, at the throne of God; for water does not wash the throne of God. Indeed David did not say that this water is above the throne of God, but that it is above the heavens, whatever water you understand it to be; for it is written: And let the waters that are above the heavens praise the name of the Lord. He said, let them praise, not let it praise. For if he had meant the element of water to be understood, he would certainly have said, let it praise: but by speaking in the plural, he meant the powers to be understood.

156. The Kingdom of God as the Spirit's Work

And what wonder is it, if the Holy Spirit is at the throne of God, since the kingdom of God itself is the working of the Spirit, as it is written: For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but justice and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit? And the Savior himself, when he says: Every kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to desolation; and then adding: But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then certainly the kingdom of God has come upon you; shows that the kingdom of God is inseparable from himself along with the Spirit.

157. Reigning Together with Christ

What indeed could be more insane than for anyone to deny that the Holy Spirit reigns together with Christ, when the Apostle even says that we shall reign together with Christ in Christ's kingdom: For if we have died together, we shall also live together; if we endure, we shall also reign together: but we by adoption, he by power; we by grace, he by nature.

158. One Nature and Power in the Kingdom

The Holy Spirit therefore has a fellowship in the kingdom with the Father and the Son, being of one nature, one dominion, and also one power.

159. The Spirit's Sending of Isaiah

Thus since he has fellowship in the kingdom, what prevents us from understanding that it is the Holy Spirit by whom Isaiah was sent? For we cannot doubt this, with Paul as our authority, whose statement Luke the evangelist so approved in the Acts of the Apostles that he wrote it down. Indeed thus you have it, Paul saying: Well did the Holy Spirit speak through Isaiah to our fathers, saying: Go to this people, and say: Hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive.

160. Isaiah's Vision of the Seraphim

It is the Spirit, then, who sent Isaiah. If the Spirit sent him, then it is the Spirit whom Isaiah saw, when King Uzziah died, when he said: I saw the Lord of Sabaoth sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the house was full of his majesty: and the Seraphim stood round about him; six wings to the one, and six wings to the other, and with two they covered his face, and with two they covered his feet, and with two they flew; and they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Sabaoth: the whole earth is full of his majesty.

161. The Seraphim's Standing and Flying

If the Seraphim stood, how did they fly? If they flew, how did they stand? If we cannot grasp this, how do we wish to grasp God, whom we do not see?

162. The Wheel Within a Wheel

But just as the prophet saw a wheel running within a wheel (which certainly does not refer to a bodily species of vision, but to the grace of each Testament; since the life of the saints is rounded and so harmonious with itself, that the later things correspond to the earlier). A wheel therefore within a wheel is the life under the Law, the life under grace; because Judea is within the Church, the Law within grace. For he who is a Jew in secret is within the Church; and the circumcision of the heart is a mystery within the Church. But that Judea within the Church, of which it is written: God is known in Judea: therefore, just as a wheel runs within a wheel, likewise the wings stood, and the wings flew.

163. The Seraphim's Wings and the Ages

Likewise also the Seraphim covered their face with two wings, and their feet with two, and with two they flew. For here too is a mystery of spiritual wisdom. Times stand still, times fly: past things stand, future things fly: and as it were the wings of the Seraphim thus veil the face of God, or his feet; because in God, who has neither beginning nor end, the whole course of time is stopped from this knowledge of his beginning and his end. Past and future things, therefore, stand still, but present things fly. Do not seek the secrets of his beginning or his end, which do not exist. You have the present: but praise it, do not examine it.

164. The Holy Spirit as the Lord Sabaoth

The Seraphim praise with unwearied voices, and do you sift and question? For when they do this, they show us that God is not sometimes to be examined, but always to be praised. Therefore the Lord Sabaoth is also the Holy Spirit. Unless perhaps the impious dislike the teacher whom Christ chose: or can they deny that the Holy Spirit is the Lord of powers, who himself bestows what powers he wills?

165. Three Witnesses to Isaiah's Vision

Now let us recognize the unity of majesty and kingdom in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For most say that God the Father was seen by Isaiah at that time; Paul said it was the Spirit, Luke confirmed it; John the Evangelist referred it to the Son. For it is thus written of the Son: Jesus spoke these things, and departed, and hid himself from them. But though he had done such signs before them, they did not believe in him; that the word of Isaiah might be fulfilled, which he spoke: Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These things Isaiah said, when he saw his majesty, and spoke of him.

166. The Diversity in the Vision's Telling

John said that Isaiah spoke these very words, and revealed most clearly that the majesty of the Son appeared to him: but Paul recalled that the Spirit said these things. Whence, then, comes this diversity?

167. One Meaning Beneath a Diversity of Words

It is a diversity of words, indeed, not of meanings. For although they said different things, no one erred; because the Father also is seen in the Son, who said: He who sees me, sees also the Father. And the Son is seen in the Spirit; because just as no one says "Lord Jesus" except in the Holy Spirit; so Christ is seen not with the eye of the flesh, but by spiritual grace. Whence also Scripture says: Arise, you who sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. And when Paul had lost his eyes, how else but in the Spirit did he see Christ? Whence also the Lord says: For to this end I have appeared to you, that I might make you a minister and a witness of the things which you have seen, and of the things in which I will appear to you. For the prophets too received the Spirit, and saw Christ.

168. One Majesty, One Christ

There is, then, one vision, one command, one majesty. Do we then deny that the Holy Spirit is also the Lord of majesty, since the Lord of majesty was crucified, who was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary? For Christ is not another, but one: before the ages born of the Father, as the Son of God; and in time, as man, begotten by the assumption of flesh.

169. The Spirit's Almighty and All-Seeing Nature

What further shall I say, but that as the Father and the Son, so also the Spirit is undefiled and almighty; for in Greek Solomon said παντοδύναμον, πανεπίσκοπον, because he is almighty and the observer of all things, as has been shown above to be read in the Book of Wisdom (hap. 18). Therefore the Spirit too is in honor and in majesty.

170. A Final Challenge on the Spirit's Divinity

Consider now, lest there be perhaps something that does not befit him: or if he displeases you, Arian, take him away from the fellowship of the Father and the Son. But if you will take him away, you will see the heavens above you turn back; for all their power is from the Spirit. If you will take him away, you must first lay your hand upon God; for God is Spirit. But how will you take away him who searches the deep things of God?