On the Holy Spirit

It is fitting to attend with reverence and vehement care to all things that are divine, but especially to those things which are said concerning the divinity of the Spirit; particularly since blasphemy against Him is without pardon, so that the punishment of the blasphemer is extended not only into this whole present age, but even into the age to come. For the Saviour says that to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit there is no remission, neither in this age, nor in the age to come.

Wherefore it is all the more necessary to attend to what the Scriptures relate concerning Him, lest into anyone, even through ignorance, the error of blasphemy should creep. It would indeed have been expedient for a faithful and timid man, measuring his own strength, to pass over in silence the greatness of the present question, and not to draw into his own peril a matter full of danger. But since certain persons, by rashness rather than by the right way, raise themselves up even into the things above, and bandy about these things concerning the Holy Spirit which have neither been read in the Scriptures, nor been used by any of the ancient churchmen, we have been compelled to yield to the frequent exhortation of the brethren, and to confirm by the testimonies of Scripture what our own opinion concerning Him is; lest, through ignorance of so great a doctrine, those who set forth contrary things should deceive those who, without careful examination, are at once dragged over into the opinion of their adversaries.

The appellation "Holy Spirit," and the substance which is shown by that very appellation, are utterly unknown to those who philosophize outside the sacred Scripture. For only in our own writings is both the notion of Him and the term referred to, both in the new and in the old Testament. For David, a man of the Old Testament, having been made a participant of Him, prayed that He might remain in him, saying: Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. And God is said to have raised up the Holy Spirit in Daniel while yet a boy, as one already dwelling in him. Nor indeed in the New Testament also are those men who are recorded to have pleased God said to be otherwise than filled with the Holy Spirit. For John, while yet in his mother's womb, is sanctified and leaps for joy; and Jesus, rising from the dead, when He had breathed upon the faces of the disciples, said: Receive ye the Holy Spirit.

The volumes of the divine Scriptures are full of such sayings, the mass of which I have forborne to set out in the present work, since it is not difficult for each reader to find similar things for himself from what we have already cited.

Let no one suppose that there was one Holy Spirit in the holy men before the coming of the Lord, and another in the apostles and the other disciples, as though there were a mere homonym subsisting in different substances. We can indeed produce testimonies from the divine Scriptures that the same Spirit was in both the apostles and the prophets. Paul, in the Epistle which he writes to the Hebrews, bringing forward a testimony from the book of Psalms, records that it was said by the Holy Spirit: And as this Holy Spirit says: Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Also at the end of the Acts of the Apostles, disputing with the Jews, he says: As the Holy Spirit spoke through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying: Hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand.

For Paul, in writing these things concerning the Spirit, did not have one Holy Spirit while another was in the prophets before the Lord's coming; but he wrote of Him of whom he himself was also a partaker, as were all who were borne along in the faith of consummate virtue. Whence also, when he makes mention of Him with the article, he attests, as it were, that He is singular and one, when he says not simply πνεῦμα ἅγιον, that is, Holy Spirit, but with the addition of the article τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, that is, this Holy Spirit. And he records that Isaiah prophesied with the articulated phrase, διὰ τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, that is, through this Holy Spirit, and not simply Πνεῦμα ἅγιον. Peter also, in that speech by which he was persuading those present, says: It was necessary that the Scripture be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke (that is, τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον) by the mouth of David concerning Judas, showing that he too held that the same Spirit worked both in the prophets and in the apostles.

We shall treat this more fully in what follows, when we begin to say that not only the Lord the Word came to be with the prophets, but the Holy Spirit as well: because He is possessed inseparably together with the only-begotten Son of God. The very term "Holy Spirit" is not an empty appellation, but is indicative of an underlying essence: allied with the Father and the Son, and utterly foreign to created things. For since creatures are divided into the visible and the invisible, that is, into corporeal and incorporeal, the Holy Spirit is not of corporeal substances, He who is the indweller of the soul and the mind, the effector of speech and wisdom and knowledge; nor is He of the invisible creatures. For all these are capable of receiving wisdom and the other virtues and sanctification. But that substance, of which our discourse now treats, is the effector of wisdom, of knowledge, and of sanctification.

For no strength or working of sanctification and power can be found in the Holy Spirit which He sustains from some extraneous source, since a nature of that kind is mutable. But the Holy Spirit, by the confession of all, is immutable, the sanctifier of divine knowledge, and the bestower of all good things, and, to speak more briefly, He Himself subsists in those good things which are bestowed by the Lord. For Matthew and Luke, describing the same passage of the Gospel, the one of them says: How much more will your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him? But the other: How much more will your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him? From which it appears that the Holy Spirit is the fullness of the gifts of God, and that the things which are administered divinely do not subsist apart from Him; because all the benefits which are received from the grace of God's gifts flow forth from that fountain.

But that which is substantially good cannot be capable of extraneous goodness, since it itself bestows goodness upon others. Therefore it is manifest that the Holy Spirit is foreign not only to corporeal but also to incorporeal creatures, since the other substances receive this substance of sanctification, whereas He is not only incapable of receiving sanctification from another, but is besides the bestower and creator of it. Finally, they who enjoy communion with Him are said to be partakers of the Holy Spirit, having been sanctified, of course, by Him. For it is plainly written: And doing despite unto the Spirit of grace, doubtless meaning him who has sinned after receiving Him. But if a man is sanctified through communion with the Holy Spirit, it is shown that he himself was a partaker of Him, and that the Holy Spirit was the bestower of that sanctification.

The Apostle also, writing to the Corinthians and enumerating those who have obtained the kingdom of heaven, adds, saying: 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, asserting that the Spirit of God is none other than the Holy Spirit. For indeed in what follows he confirms the same, saying: No man speaking in the Spirit of God says Anathema to Jesus, and no man says the Lord Jesus, but in the Holy Spirit, confirming that the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit.

If, therefore, He is the sanctifier, He is shown to be of a substance not mutable, but immutable. But the divine oracles most plainly hand down that the immutable substance belongs only to God and His only-begotten Son, proclaiming every substance of created things to be convertible and mutable. Therefore, since the substance of the Holy Spirit has been shown to be, not convertible, but inconvertible, He will not be ὁμοούσιος (of one substance) with the creature. For the creature too would be immutable, if it were placed together with the Father and the Son, possessing the same inconvertibility. For everything that is capable of receiving another's good is separated from this substance. But such are all created things; whereas God, since He is good, is the fount and source of good things; He therefore makes those good to whom He imparts Himself, being Himself good not by being made so by another, but subsisting so of Himself: therefore He is one who can be partaken of, and is not himself a partaker.

The only-begotten Son likewise, who is His wisdom and sanctification, does not become wise, but makes others wise; and is not sanctified, but sanctifies. Whence He too can be partaken of, and is not a partaker. Since, then, the invisible creature, which by custom is called rational and incorporeal substance, is not one that can be partaken of, but one that partakes—for if it could be partaken of, it would be capable of no good, subsisting simply of itself, and would be a receiver of another's good—it has good by participation, and is understood not among those things which are possessed by others, but among those which possess others; the Father and the Son being rather possessed than possessing; while the creature possesses, and is not possessed.

Let us reconsider likewise concerning the Holy Spirit: if indeed He too is holy by participation in another's holiness, let Him be numbered with the rest of the creatures. But if He makes the holy capable of Himself, He is to be ranked with the Father and the Son. That the Holy Spirit is partaken of by others, and does not Himself partake of others, we have expressed both now and in the volume of the Sects (as far as we were able); and it is very easy to confirm our statement from all Scripture. The blessed Apostle also, writing to the Ephesians, says: In whom also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance. For if certain persons are sealed with the Holy Spirit, receiving His form and likeness, then the Holy Spirit is among those things which are possessed, and does not Himself possess, since those who possess Him are stamped with His seal.

Writing to the Corinthians likewise, he says: Grieve not the Holy Spirit, in whom you were sealed, attesting that those are sealed who had received communion with the Holy Spirit. For just as one who takes up a discipline or a skill receives, so to speak, the seal and imprint in his own mind of that knowledge which he has taken up, so also he who is made a partaker of the Holy Spirit becomes, through communion with Him, both spiritual and holy alike.

But the Holy Spirit himself, if he were one of the creatures, would at least have a circumscribed substance, as all things that have been made do. For even if invisible creatures are not circumscribed by place and boundaries, yet they are bounded by the property of their substance. But the Holy Spirit, since he is in many, does not have a circumscribed substance. For Jesus, sending forth the preachers of his doctrine, filled them with the Spirit; and breathing upon their face, he said: Receive the Holy Spirit, and going, teach all nations: as though he were sending all of them to all nations alike. For not all the apostles went forth to all nations equally, but some into Asia, some into Scythia, and others were scattered into other nations, according to the dispensation of him whom they had with them, the Holy Spirit, just as the Lord also says: I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.

To this also that saying agrees: You shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you; and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth. If then these men, appointed to bear witness of the Lord even in the furthest bounds of the earth, were separated from one another by the greatest distances, yet the Holy Spirit dwelt in them as their indweller, having a substance not circumscribed, then it is shown that angelic power is altogether foreign to this. For an angel, for example, who was present to the Apostle praying in Asia, could not at the same time be present likewise to others established in the other parts of the world.

But the Holy Spirit is not only at hand to men separated from one another, but also assists as an indweller each and every angel, principality, throne, and dominion; and just as, in sanctifying men, he is of another nature than men are, so also in sanctifying other creatures he is other than their substance: since every creature is made holy not from its own substance, but from communion with another's holiness.

Holy angels are indeed spoken of in the Gospel, the Savior saying that the Son of man will come in his own majesty and that of the Father, and of the holy angels. And Cornelius, in the Acts of the Apostles, is written to have received a response from a holy angel to call Peter, the disciple of Christ, to himself. But angels are holy by participation in the Holy Spirit, and by the indwelling of the only-begotten Son of God, who is holiness, and the communication of the Father. Of whom the Savior says: Holy Father. If, then, angels are not holy from their own substance, but from participation in the holy Trinity, it is shown that the substance of angels is other than that of the Trinity. For as the Father who sanctifies is other than those who are sanctified, and the Son is other than those whom he makes holy, so also the Holy Spirit is of another substance than those whom he sanctifies by the bestowal of himself.

But if the heretics propose that angels are holy by the nature of their condition, they are consequently compelled to say that they are of one substance (ὁμοουσίους) with the Trinity, and are unchangeably holy according to substance. But if, avoiding this, they say that angels are indeed of one nature with the other creatures, yet do not have the same holiness which men have, it will necessarily follow that they must say that men are of a much better substance; since men have holiness through communion with the Trinity, while angels, holy by their own nature, are alien to it. But it is the prayer of perfect men, coming to the consummation of holiness, to become equal to the angels. For angels give aid to men, and not men to angels, ministering salvation to them, and announcing to them the more abundant benefits of God. From which it is clearly shown that angels are more honorable and much better than men, through a more genuine, so to speak, and fuller reception of the Trinity.

Wherefore, since the Holy Spirit is other than those things which he himself sanctifies, he is not of one nature with the other creatures which receive him. But if he is of another nature than the creatures, and subsists in his own essence, he is shown to be uncreated and unmade. There are many Scriptures which prove without ambiguity that he is of another nature than all created things. Certain persons also are said to be full of the Holy Spirit; but no one, whether in the Scriptures or in common usage, is said to be full of a creature. For neither Scripture claims this for itself, nor common speech, so that you would say that someone is full of an angel, a throne, a dominion: for this manner of speech belongs to the divine nature alone. But we say that certain persons are full of virtue and discipline: as in that saying, He was filled with the Holy Spirit, signifying nothing other than that they are full of consummate and perfect virtue.

It is written of John: And he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. And again: Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And after other things: And Zacharias his father was filled with the Holy Spirit. There is no doubt that John also prophesied. And likewise in the Acts of the Apostles it is related of the many believers who had come together as one: They were filled with the Holy Spirit. Now since the Holy Spirit is participable, after the likeness of wisdom and discipline, he does not possess the substance of knowledge in empty names only; but through his sanctifying nature, filling all things with good things, he himself subsists as good, according to which certain persons are also said to have been filled with the Holy Spirit: as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles, And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with confidence.

For just as one who is full of some discipline, who possesses it perfectly, can speak of it skillfully and subtly, so those who have received the Holy Spirit to the fullest extent, so as to be filled with him, speak the word of God with confidence, because the Holy Spirit, being present, supplies a voice worthy of God. Hence one, with a certain solemnity, says: Thus says the Holy Spirit. And the Apostle says: But be filled with the Spirit. And in many places of the Acts of the Apostles the disciples of the Lord are written to have been full of the Holy Spirit. Consider therefore, brethren, seven men from among you who have a good report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. And of Stephen: But being full of the Holy Spirit, he, looking up steadfastly to heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And of the vessel of election it is said: But Saul, who is also Paul, full of the Holy Spirit, looking upon him said.

And it is noted in common of all believers: The disciples also were filled with joy, and with the Holy Spirit. But the presence of an angel, or of any other excellent created nature, does not fill the mind and understanding; because that nature itself is filled from elsewhere. For just as one who receives from the fullness of the Savior is made full of wisdom, and virtue, and righteousness, and the word of God, so he who is full of the Holy Spirit is immediately filled with all the gifts of God—wisdom, knowledge, faith, and the other virtues. He, therefore, who fills all creatures—which nevertheless are able to receive virtue and wisdom—is not himself one of those whom he fills. From which it is gathered that he is of another substance than all creatures are. We have also said elsewhere that in the substance of the Holy Spirit the fullness of the divine gifts is likewise to be understood as underlying it.

Finally, it is impossible for anyone to obtain the grace of God if he does not have the Holy Spirit, in whom we prove that all the gifts of God consist. But that he who has him has also obtained perfectly the word of wisdom and the other good things—both the present passage shows clearly, and we said a little before, that the Holy Spirit is the substance of the good things of God, when we gave the example: The Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. And: The Father will give good things to those who ask him. Nor should we think that the Holy Spirit is divided according to substances, because a multitude of good things is spoken of.

For he is impassible, and indivisible, and unchangeable; but according to differing operations and understandings, he is called by many names of good things: because he does not grant to his participants, by communion with himself, according to one and the same power, since indeed he is fitted to the advantage of each individual, and fills with good things those to whom he judges it right to be present. Finally, Stephen, that first witness of the truth, worthy of his name, is said to have been full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit: wisdom being understood as consequently underlying it, the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, as Scripture says: And the apostles chose Stephen, full of faith and the Holy Spirit. And: But Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. And further of the same: And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit that spoke in him.

For the blessed man, full of the Holy Spirit, was also made a partaker of faith, which comes from the Holy Spirit, according to that saying, But to another faith by the same Spirit. And having grace and power according to the same Spirit, he did great signs and wonders among the people. And likewise he abounded in those gifts according to the same Spirit which are called the graces and powers of healing. For these too are placed in the enumeration of the gifts of God, which are of the Spirit and according to the Spirit, in the first Epistle of the apostle Paul to the Corinthians. And Stephen abounded so much in divine grace that none of those who contradicted him, and who disputed against him, were able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit that spoke in him. For he was wise from the Holy Spirit.

Whence also Jesus proclaims plainly to his disciples: When you shall be brought before rulers, and powers, and councils, and synagogues, do not be anxious what you ought to say, or what you shall speak at that time. For it shall be given to you by the Holy Spirit words of wisdom, which they shall not be able to gainsay, not even those who are especially skilled in disputations.

But let us set forth the very testimony, which reads as follows: But when they shall bring you into the synagogues before rulers and powers, be not anxious how or what you shall answer, for the Holy Spirit shall teach you in that same hour what you ought to say. And in another Gospel: Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to premeditate how you shall answer: for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which they shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. Now since the Holy Spirit gives to the apostles words against those who opposed the Gospel, it is clearly shown that in his substance is to be understood the word of wisdom and knowledge.

But how the Savior, in that hour, bestows on the disciples a mouth and wisdom which they cannot gainsay, not even those who are considered most eloquent among men, is not the business of the present moment to discuss; because now we have proposed to show that the gifts of the virtues are always to be understood as underlying the Holy Spirit, so that he who has him is held to be full of the gifts of God. Whence also in Isaiah, God himself says to a certain one: I will put my Spirit upon your seed, and my blessings upon your children. For no one ever receives the spiritual blessings of God unless the Holy Spirit has gone before.

For he who shall have received the Holy Spirit will consequently have the blessings, that is, wisdom, and understanding, and the rest, of which the Apostle writes thus: For this reason we also, from the day we heard it, do not cease praying for you, and asking, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding: walking worthily of God. For he says that those who walk worthily of him through works, and words, and prudence are filled with the will of God, who places upon them the Holy Spirit, so that they may be filled with wisdom and understanding, and the rest of the spiritual good things. But wisdom and understanding, which are in the Holy Spirit, are given by God. The Lord, it says, will give wisdom; and from his face proceed wisdom and understanding; whereas the wisdom which comes from men is not spiritual, but fleshly and to be interpreted as merely human. And human.

Of this, then, the Apostle writes: Not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, have we conducted ourselves in the world; calling fleshly wisdom that which, in bodily matters, subsists from human thought. But spiritual and intellectual wisdom, holding itself to invisible and intellectual things, grants its presence, through the operation of the Holy Spirit, to those who receive it. In many other places also the Apostle records that the gifts of God dwell underlying in the substance of the Holy Spirit; as in that saying: Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

But God, the giver of good things, will render in the power of the Holy Spirit the hope which he promised, to those who possess him; he fills with joy and peace those who, possessing an undisturbed and settled understanding, have joyful minds, tranquil from every tempest of disturbances. But those who have obtained the aforesaid goods in the power of the Holy Spirit will also attain the right faith concerning the mystery of the Trinity. Also in another place of the same epistle he says: The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For by asserting that in the Holy Spirit there is righteousness, that is, universal virtue, and the peace we spoke of above, joined together with the joy of God, he most clearly proves to those who were able to hear him that these goods are nothing other than the substance of the Holy Spirit.

Since, therefore, these goods come to men from the bestowal of the Holy Spirit, the calling of the Gentiles which he introduced through the Gospel teaching is rendered acceptable and sanctified in the Holy Spirit: because the Holy Spirit, making them sanctified and accepted in this too, is himself the substance of the goods of God. And he who is full of him does all things according to reason, teaching rightly, living blamelessly, showing forth signs and wonders truly and perfectly. For he possesses the might of the Holy Spirit furnishing him a treasure and the cause of the fullness of all good things. Peter, the disciple of the Lord Jesus, knew that the bestowal of the Holy Spirit is the very nature of the gifts of God. For he says to those who were rebuking his entry to Cornelius: If then God gave them an equal grace, granting the Holy Spirit as also to us in the beginning: who was I, that I could withstand God?

And further to his own he says: God, who knows the hearts, bore them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit as also to us, and made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. To this sense also agrees that which is said in many places, that the Holy Spirit is given to the Lord: Jacob is my servant, I will uphold him: Israel is my chosen, my soul will receive him: I have put my spirit upon him. And further: He who gives breath to the people that dwell upon it, doubtless the earth, and spirit to them that walk upon it. We have shown above, moreover, that the Spirit of God is not one thing and the Holy Spirit another. Paul also says: The love of God is poured out in your hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to you. And this: How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

This Spirit, moreover, is also said to be poured out from God upon all flesh, that they who receive him may prophesy and see visions, according to Joel, who speaks in the person of God: I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. For the outpouring of the Spirit is the cause of prophesying, and of seeing the sense and beauty of truth. The very name "outpouring" itself proves the uncreated substance of the Holy Spirit. For God, when he sends an angel or names some other creature, does not say "of my angel," or of a principality, or a throne, or a dominion. For this manner of speech agrees only with those things which are participated in by others: as we have just said, and a little before, of the love of God, which is poured out in the hearts of those who have received the Holy Spirit. He says: The love of God is poured out in your hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to you.

The Savior too, since he also is capable of being participated, is said, in the likeness of ointment, to be poured out: Ointment poured out is your name. For as an ointment which is contained in a vessel has indeed the substance of its fragrance, but is prevented from being spread further because it is enclosed within the vessel; but when the vessel has been poured out, it sends its fragrance far abroad: so the fragrant name of Christ, before his coming, was confined to the people of Israel alone, as if enclosed in the vessel of Judea; for it is said, God is known in Judea, his name is great in Israel.

But when the Savior, shining forth in his flesh, extended his name over the whole earth—nay rather over every creature—fulfilling what is written: How admirable is your name in all the earth; to whom accordingly the Apostle speaks: For there is no other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved: and the Psalmist speaks to the Lord: You have magnified your holy name above all things: then was fulfilled, Ointment poured out is your name. The word "outpouring," moreover, signifies the ample and rich abundance of the gift.

Therefore, when someone here or there, or two persons, receive the Holy Spirit, it is not said, "I will pour out of my spirit"; but only when the gift of the Holy Spirit has overflowed upon all nations. And to Titus the Apostle recalls the salvation wrought for the Gentiles: Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but through the washing of the second regeneration, and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us abundantly. Here too the word "outpouring" shows the ample bestowal of the Spirit. From all these things we are taught that the substance of the Holy Spirit is capable of being participated, and from this, that it is uncreated. He calls "capable" that substance which is participated in by many and grants them fellowship with itself; but he calls "capacious" that which is filled by communication with another's substance: and taking in something else, it is not itself taken in by another.

For with the capable substance immediately follows the unchangeable, and with the unchangeable, the eternal; just as, on the contrary, with the participating substance follows the changeable, and with the changeable, the creatable. Nothing of creatures, therefore, is unchangeable, and for this reason nothing is everlasting either. Not only, then, is that which is rational in men subject to change and is created, but this same changeability is found in all creatures. For the divine oracles show also the changes and falls of angels. For although a multitude of angels and of other excellent powers persist in blessedness and holiness, yet since they have been changed among those things which have a like nature, it is clearly shown that they remain in their first state not through the immutability of their substance, but through more diligent service to the Lord. For the nature of equals cannot be diverse.

For since the whole human race is mortal, and each individual human being is mortal: so conversely, if any of the higher beings are immortal, doubtless all that are established in the same genus and species are immortal.

Since this is so, even if a single angel should appear changeable, all will be changeable, although they are not changed, but persist in blessedness: just as all human bodies are divisible, although not all are divided. For some of them, having undergone division, interpret the nature of the rest that are like themselves. These things having been thus set forth, the Holy Spirit is shown to be of a different substance from the visible and invisible creatures. But if this is true, certain most impious persons number the Holy Spirit among all things, saying that in the statement that all things were made by God through the Word, the making of the Holy Spirit too is signified. For the Holy Spirit is shown to be, not one among all things, but something else outside all things, by his substance, on both counts.

For if creation, as we have shown above, is divided into corporeal and incorporeal, and if the Holy Spirit were created, he would certainly be either a visible or an invisible creature, that is, either corporeal or incorporeal. But he will by no means be a body, as we said before, since he teaches, and imparts knowledge, and is perceived by sense and by soul. But neither will he be an invisible creature, as we discussed a little before concerning him. Whence also the Apostle, in the Epistle which he wrote to the Hebrews, shows him to be different from all the angels, saying: For to which of the angels did he ever say: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for those who shall receive salvation? And after other things: How shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation?

Which, having received its beginning to be spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by those who heard, God also bearing witness with signs, and wonders, and various miracles, and distributions of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. For what he says, "to which of the angels," is equally to be taken as if he said "to none": by the name "angelic" signifying the whole substance of the invisible creatures. For God said to none of the angels, nor to any other rational creature: Sit at my right hand. The statement, therefore, pronounces in common that it was said to no creature, "Sit at my right hand." And this is said in common concerning creation. And pronouncing concerning all invisible creatures, he says they are ministering spirits. For which reason he adds: Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister?

For although not all invisible creatures individually were sent, yet because others of the same kind and honor were sent, in a certain way they too were sent by their capability: sharers in what was sent and of equal substance. How then is the Lord different from all creatures, through whom that great salvation received its beginning to be spoken, of neglecting which the Apostle, not wishing us to be guilty, says: How shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation, which, having received its beginning to be spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by those who heard; but also God, who bears witness by signs and wonders to this salvation, is different from all the ministering spirits: so also the Holy Spirit, by whose distributions according to his will God bears witness, distributing him not by parts of division, but through communion to those to whom he has decreed to grant him: he himself also is of a different substance from those among whom, poured out, he is distributed.

Therefore, since we have shown, according to the sense of the Scriptures, that the Holy Spirit is other than, and outside of, all creation, certain persons in vain—nay rather impiously—wishing to show that he was created, use as a testimony the statement that all things were made through the Word: as if to say that even the eternal substance is thereby included among all things. And because they also appropriate to prove his createdness a prophetic saying, where God says, "I create the spirit": in this too we must show them to be utterly estranged from the understanding of the truth. For the Prophet's statement was not proposed concerning the Holy Spirit, as is understood from the very sequence and context of the utterance.

For the prophet Amos, in the person of God, says: Prepare to call upon your God, O Israel: for I am he who establishes the thunder, and creates the spirit, and declares to men his Christ: making the dawn and the cloud, and ascending upon the high places of the earth: the Lord God Almighty is his name. For God, who had foretold that he would establish and make the spirit, also said that he establishes the thunder and makes the dawn and the clouds.

If then we abide by the aforesaid narration, that is, in the thunder and the dawn and the clouds, we ought to hold the same order of narration also in the spirit, so that what is said by God may be understood thus: That you may call upon me, who am God, who provide for all things, who am also the creator of all, who establish the thunder, and found the spirit, who make the dawn and the cloud for certain benefits of men: prepare, O Israel, to call upon me; that when you have been prepared to call upon me, and have prayed to me, who establish the aforesaid things, you may enjoy the felicity of the seasons, and the bestowal of other good things, as I minister to you all things year by year according to the order of nature, so that the year may flow fruitfully, that the moments of the hours may run their due courses, that the thunders may roar in their season, and that the healthful breeze may blow with timely gusts.

But if by allegory the thunder, and the dawn, and the cloud, and the creation of the spirit are to be understood, they will signify not the substance of the thing, but a figurative interpretation.

But if on the contrary someone should object that these things are manifestly said of the Holy Spirit, on the ground that what follows is applied to the creation of the Spirit—namely: And announcing to all men his Christ; in the Hebrew it reads, he announces unto man his word—meaning that he who is the creator of all things also himself inspires the prophets, and through them makes known his will to men. To this it must be answered, that certain heretics falsely claim that there is some other Lord, apart from the Creator, who is the Father of the Savior, most impiously preaching this: not foreseeing that their wicked suspicion is struck down by God, who says: I who form the thunder, and create the spirit, and make and govern the other parts of the world, announce unto men my Christ.

For this work of my providence is above all my works, that I am the cause not only of things that are external, but also of those things which pertain to the profit of the soul and the advantage of the mind. This phrase, "I create the spirit," I judge to be set down equally as if he had said, "creating the wind." For God, by his own disposition, guides these blasts, which come about through the movement of the air: according to that which we read elsewhere: Who brings forth the winds out of his treasuries. And it is well that in this same sentence he does not say, "who created," but "who creates the spirit." For if the discourse concerned the substantiality of the Holy Spirit, he would certainly have said, "who created." For he does not always create the same one. But here, consistently, it is said of the wind, "who creates," because the winds are not made once for all, but in that they continue to exist, they are made daily.

Nor is it without reason that here "spirit" is said to be created without the article, which in Greek speech is the marker of singularity: because it is not the Holy Spirit—since almost always the Holy Spirit, when named, is named with the article—as in that phrase αὐτὸ τὸ Πνεῦμα, that is, the Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit. And elsewhere, αὐτός ἐστιν τὸ ζωοποιοῦν, that is, he himself is the one who gives life. And again: So also the things of God no one has known except τὸ Πνεῦμα, that is, the Spirit of God: Τὸ γὰρ πνεῦμα, that is, for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. And there are many other passages that could be gathered from the sacred Scriptures. But where the Holy Spirit is rarely named without the article, it must be understood that he is named with an addition signifying his magnificence.

For indeed he is sometimes named without the article, when not he himself in his own person, but a participation in him, is shown: as for instance, the spirit of Elijah, and walk by the Spirit, and whatever other examples are similar to these.

Since therefore from these things which I have mentioned, and from many others, it has been demonstrated that the Holy Spirit is not a creature, and is nowhere numbered among created things, but is always set together with the Father and the Son: let us now see what indifference of nature he has with each of them. At the end of the second Epistle which Paul writes to the Corinthians, he says: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God, and the communication of the Holy Spirit, be with you all always. For from this present statement is shown the single assumption of the Trinity: since he who has received the grace of Christ has it both through the administration of the Father, and through the bestowal of the Holy Spirit.

For it is given by God the Father and by Jesus Christ, according to that saying: Grace be with you, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (and elsewhere): the Father giving one grace and the Savior another is not the case. For indeed he describes it as being given both by the Father and by the Lord Jesus Christ, completed by the communication of the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit himself is also called grace, according to that saying: And doing despite unto the Spirit of grace, in whom he was sanctified. In Zechariah also God promises that he will pour out—that is, will bestow most abundantly upon Jerusalem—the spirit of grace and of mercies. For when anyone has received the grace of the Holy Spirit, he will have it given by God the Father, and by Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore one grace, completed by the operation of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, demonstrates the Trinity to be of one substance.

In another place also: The charity, he says, of God be with you all, which is both bestowed and confirmed by the Trinity. For the Savior says: He who hears my words and keeps them, this is he who loves me. But he who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him. For there is not one love of the Savior toward those who are loved, and another love of the Father. For God loves unto salvation, because so God loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Likewise also the Son, who is life, that he might bestow life and salvation, loves those whom he wills to become better. Whence he says that he loves the one who is loved by the Father. And it is said of him in the Prophet: And he himself shall save them, because he loved them.

That this love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle attests, as also joy and peace, which are ministered by the Father and the Son, saying: But the fruit of the Spirit is joy, peace, charity. Which charity is poured out in the hearts of believers through the Holy Spirit. For, he says, the charity of God is diffused in your hearts through the Holy Spirit. For everyone who communicates with the Holy Spirit, communicates through participation in him, according to that saying: And the communication of the Holy Spirit be with you all always. And in another place: If there is any communication of the Spirit. When he has had the wisdom of God and its word, and truth in all things, he will also have the fellowship of holiness in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But God is faithful, through whom you were called unto the communication of his Son.

John also writes concerning the Father: If we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have communication with him. And further: But our communication is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. Therefore whoever communicates with the Holy Spirit at once communicates with the Father and the Son. And whoever has the charity of the Father has it from the Son, bestowed through the Holy Spirit. But also whoever is a partaker of the grace of Jesus Christ has that same grace, given by the Father through the Holy Spirit. For in all things it is proven that the operation is the same, of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But those whose operation is one, their substance is also one: because things which are ὁμοούσια—of the same substance—have the same operations: and things which are of another substance, and ἀνομοούσια, are discordant and diverse.

For it is not only from these things which we have already set forth that the unity of the Trinity is taught: but from innumerable others, of which again, in their proper order, we shall set down a few. Peter, rebuking Ananias, in that he had defrauded, keeping back part of the price, in the selling of a field of which he said he had offered the whole price: proved the unity of the Holy Spirit with God, not according to number, but according to substance, saying: Ananias, why hath Satan filled thy heart, that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Spirit, and keep back part of the price of the land? Whilst it remained, did it not remain thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thy own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thy heart? Thou hast not lied to men, but to God.

For if he who lies to the Lord, lies to the Holy Spirit: and he who lies to the Holy Spirit, lies to God: no one can doubt that the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is with God. And in the same way that holiness subsists in God, in the same way also deity is understood to be in the Holy Spirit. But this Holy Spirit, whom we have said to be of the same nature with the Father, does not differ from the divinity of the Son either, the Savior saying to his disciples: When they shall bring you into the synagogues to the magistrates and powers, be not anxious how or what you shall answer. For the Holy Spirit shall teach you in that same hour what you ought to say. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to premeditate how you shall answer. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist or to contradict.

And in saying these things, that they ought not to be anxious as to what they should answer their adversaries, because in that same hour they would be taught by the Holy Spirit what they ought to answer: he at once adduces the reason for this confidence, saying, Settle it in your hearts, not to premeditate how you shall answer: for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which they shall not be able to resist or contradict. For when he had said that at the time of answering they would be taught by the Holy Spirit what they ought to answer, he adds in what follows: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom

From which it is shown that the wisdom which is given to the disciples by the Son is the wisdom of the Holy Spirit: and that the teaching of the Holy Spirit is the teaching of the Lord: and that there is one fellowship of nature and of will between the Holy Spirit and the Son. And since it has been shown above that the Spirit is joined by nature to the Only-begotten of God, and to God the Father: but the Son and the Father are one, according to that saying: I and the Father are one: the Trinity is shown to be, according to nature, undivided and inseparable. In another Gospel too it is said: For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you.

If therefore the Spirit of the Father speaks in the apostles, teaching them what they ought to answer: and that which is taught by the Spirit is wisdom, which we cannot understand to be anything other than the Son: it plainly appears that the Spirit is of the same nature as the Son, and as the Father, whose Spirit he is. Moreover, the Father and the Son are one. Therefore the Trinity is joined together in unity of substance.

By another example from the Scriptures also, the unity, both of nature and of power, of the Trinity is shown. The Son is called the hand, and the right hand, and the arm of the Father. As we have frequently taught, from these appellations the indifference of one nature is demonstrated. The Holy Spirit also is named the finger of God, according to the conjunction of the nature of the Father and the Son. For indeed in one of the Gospels, against those who detracted from the Lord's signs, saying: He casts out devils by Beelzebub the prince of devils: the Savior, inquiring, says: If I cast out devils by Beelzebub, by whom do your children cast them out? But if I cast out devils by the finger of God: then is the kingdom of God come upon you. This same passage, another Evangelist, describing it, sets down the Son as saying: But if I by the Spirit of God cast out devils. From which it is shown that the finger of God is the Holy Spirit.

If then the finger is joined to the hand, and the hand to him whose hand it is: the finger without doubt is referred to the substance of him whose finger it is.

But take care lest, cast down to low things and forgetful of the discourse now under discussion, you depict in your mind the differences of bodily limbs, and begin to fashion for yourself magnitudes and inequalities and the other larger or smaller members of bodies, saying that a finger differs from a hand, and a hand from him whose hand it is, by many inequalities: because Scripture is now speaking of incorporeal things, wishing to demonstrate unity alone, not the measure of substance. For just as the hand is not divided from the body—through which it accomplishes and performs all things, and is in him whose hand it is—so too the finger is not separated from the hand, whose finger it is. Therefore reject inequalities and measures when you think about God, and understand the unity of finger and hand, and of the whole substance: by which finger the law was written on tablets of stone. Through another Scripture also it is very easy to show the proof of our faith.

God alone is called wise: not receiving wisdom from another, nor being named wise through participation in someone else's wisdom. For many are called wise, not from their own nature, but from communication in wisdom. But God, not made wise by participation in another's wisdom, nor from elsewhere, is called alone wise, and the begetter of wisdom, and the maker of others wise. Which wisdom is our Lord Jesus Christ, who is called the power of God and the wisdom of God. The Holy Spirit also is called wisdom. For indeed it is related in the old books that Joshua the son of Nun was filled by the Lord with the spirit of wisdom.

Therefore, just as God alone is wise, not receiving wisdom from elsewhere, but making others wise and begetting wisdom—he alone is wise, beyond all who are called wise by participation in his name (for "the multitude of the wise is the salvation of the world"; and "those who know themselves, these are wise"; and again, "if you walk with the wise, you shall be wise")—so too the Holy Spirit, not receiving wisdom from elsewhere, is called the spirit of wisdom: for this very thing which he subsists as is the spirit of wisdom; and his nature is nothing other than the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of God, concerning which we have already disputed abundantly in the volume on the Sects. Whence, lest we needlessly repeat the same things, let us be content with the previous discussion.

Since therefore the Spirit of wisdom and truth is inseparably with the Son, he too subsists as wisdom and truth. For if he were capable of receiving wisdom and truth, he would at some point come to the point of ceasing to have what he had received from elsewhere—that is, wisdom and truth. And the Son, himself subsisting as wisdom and truth, is not separated from the Father, who alone is proclaimed by the words of the Scriptures as wise and truth. We see the same circle of unity and substance of the Holy Spirit, according to that which is the spirit of wisdom and truth, as he has with the Son; and again that the Son does not differ from the substance of the Father. But since the Son is the image of the invisible God, and the form of his substance, whoever are imaged and formed according to this image or form are brought into the likeness of God—yet according to the powers of human progress, attaining a form and image of this kind.

Similarly also, since the Holy Spirit is the seal of God, those who receive the form and image of God, sealed by him, are led in him to the seal of Christ's wisdom and knowledge, being moreover filled with faith. For there are diversities of operations, but the same is the one Spirit who works all things in all. Therefore, as the Father works the manifold fullness of the charisms, the Son multiplies it as it subsists through the Holy Spirit. For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another, of knowledge, according to the same spirit; to another, faith in the same spirit; and the rest, which the Apostle enumerated as gifts, to which he adds: "But all these things the one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each as he wills".

Whence, in saying that the nature of the Holy Spirit is operative, and, so to speak, distributive, let us not be led away by those who say that the Holy Spirit is an operation, and not the substance, of God. And from many other places also the subsisting nature of the Holy Spirit is demonstrated: as in that which the apostles write: "For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us": because this expression, "it has seemed good," signifies not operation but nature—especially since something similar is found also concerning the Lord, as: "As it seemed good to the Lord, so it was done". Furthermore his words are very often read, as in that: "While they were fasting and ministering"—that is, the disciples of Christ—"the Holy Spirit said: Separate for me Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them". Which utterance, an index of divinity and authority, shows a substance not created but uncreated.

For the Holy Spirit did not call Barnabas and Paul to some other work that was not that of the Father and the Son, since the ministry which the Spirit committed and handed over to them is the ministry of the Father and the Son. Paul speaks to the Galatians: "For he who worked in me for the apostolate of the circumcision worked in me also for the Gentiles and for Barnabas". For they were directed alike to the nations by the authority of the Holy Spirit. With Christ also working in the apostles, the ministry of the Spirit was completed, so that the apostles themselves confess that they speak in Christ, and that which they saw with their own eyes, and that they were made ministers of the word—that is, of Christ—and dispensers of the mysteries of God.

Finally, as though holding a primacy in the priesthood, and shown as initiators of the faith, by Christ, who says: "Going, go, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". And as the Apostle writes most rightly: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism." Who would not be compelled by the very truth itself to accept the undividedness of the holy Trinity, since there is one faith in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and the washing is given and confirmed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit?

I do not think anyone will be so senseless and mad as to think that a baptism is perfect which is given in the name of the Father and of the Son, without the taking up of the Holy Spirit; or again in the name of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, the name of the Son being omitted; or indeed in the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, the name of the Father not being placed first. For although there may exist someone of (so to speak) stony heart and utterly alien mind, who should attempt to baptize in such a way as to omit one of the prescribed names—clearly acting as a legislator contrary to Christ—nevertheless he will baptize without completeness; indeed he will not be able at all to free from sins those whom he shall have supposed to be baptized by him.

From this it is gathered how undivided is the substance of the Trinity, and that the Father is truly the father of the Son, and the Son truly the son of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is truly the Spirit of the Father and of God, and moreover of wisdom and truth, that is, of the Son of God. This, therefore, is the salvation of believers, and the dispensation of ecclesiastical discipline is perfected in this Trinity. For since the Savior sent his disciples to preach the Gospel, and the Father is said to have established in the Church, for the teaching of the doctrines of truth, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers—concerning which matter also the Apostle has a fitting saying: "And as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, who approves our hearts"—these same whom Christ ordained to be teachers, and whom the Father approved, the Holy Spirit is also declared to have established as dispensers and superiors in the Church.

For indeed, when Paul the Apostle had gathered together at Miletus the presbyters from various places and very many churches: "Take heed," he says, "to yourselves and to the whole flock, over which the Holy Spirit has placed you as bishops, to rule the Church of the Lord, which he acquired through his own blood". For if the Holy Spirit set over the Church those whom Christ sent to evangelize and to baptize the nations, they having been appointed by the decision of the Father, there is no doubt to anyone that there is one operation and one approval of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and consequently that the substance of the Trinity is the same. Nor is this to be overlooked, that no creature can dwell in the heart and mind, except God and his Word in the Holy Spirit: as the Father speaks to certain ones: "I will dwell in them, and walk among them".

And a certain one directs his voice to him: "But you dwell in the holy place, the praise of Israel". For the Most High, the creator of all creation, dwells in high places. But the only-begotten Son also dwells in the pure mind and heart of believers. For indeed the Apostle says that Christ dwells through faith in the inner man, in the Spirit, writing thus: "That in the Spirit, in the inner man, Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts". He himself also speaks of himself: "Christ lives in me". And again: "Christ who speaks in me". And the Savior says: "We will come, I and the Father"—no doubt, to him who shall have kept his commandments, "and we will make our abode with him." Moreover, the passage is thus constructed: "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. And my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him". In another place also, the whole nature of rational creatures is called the house of the Savior.

But as the Lord Jesus is over his own house, whose house we are, so the house of Christ, the temple of God, is that in which the Spirit of the same God dwells. For writing to the Corinthians Paul says: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you"? But if in the house and temple where the Father and the Savior dwell, the Holy Spirit also is straightway found there, from this the undivided substance of the Trinity is demonstrated. And a little later in the same epistle he says: "Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, which you have from God"? Since therefore the Holy Spirit, like the Father and the Son, is taught to dwell in the mind and inner man, it is not merely inept but impious to call him a creature.

For it is indeed possible for disciplines—I mean virtues and arts, and their contrary disturbances, and ignorances, and passions—to dwell in souls, but not as substantial things, only as accidents. But it is impossible for a created nature to dwell in the mind. But if this is true, and the Holy Spirit, subsisting without any ambiguity, is the inhabitant of the soul and the heart, there is no doubt to anyone that, together with the Father and the Son, he must be believed to be uncreated. From all, therefore, that the preceding discourse has set forth, the Holy Spirit, shown to be incorruptible and eternal according to the nature of the Father and of the Son, has removed every ambiguity and suspicion concerning himself, lest he be reckoned one of the created substances. But nor can it be doubted that this is the Spirit of God, whom the words of the Savior in the Gospel declare to go forth from the Father.

"When the Comforter comes," he says, "whom I will send to you, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness concerning me". But he calls the Holy Spirit, who is coming, the Comforter, imposing the name upon him from his operation: because he not only comforts those whom he has found worthy of himself, and renders them free from all sadness and disturbance, but also grants them a certain incredible joy and gladness, to such a degree that one, giving thanks to God for being deemed worthy of such a guest, might say: "You have put gladness in my heart". For everlasting gladness dwells in the heart of those whose inhabitant is the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is sent by the Son: not according to the ministry of angels, or of prophets, or of apostles, but as befits the Spirit of God to be sent by wisdom and truth, having an undivided nature with that same wisdom and truth.

For indeed the Son, sent by the Father, is not separated nor disjoined from him, remaining and having him in himself. Likewise the Spirit of truth, sent in the aforesaid manner by the Son, goes forth from the Father, not migrating from one place to another. For this is at once impossible and blasphemous. For if the Spirit goes forth from place to place, then the Father himself will be found in a place, and the Spirit of truth, circumscribed by a certain space according to the nature of bodies, will migrate, leaving one place for another. But just as the Father, not consisting in a place, is beyond every nature of bodies, so too the Spirit of truth is by no means enclosed within the bound of places, since he is incorporeal, and, to speak more truly, surpasses the whole rational creation.

Since therefore it is impossible, and impious, to believe those things which we have said concerning incorporeal beings—that the Holy Spirit "goes forth" from the Father—this must be understood in the way that the Saviour testifies that he himself went forth from God, saying, "I went forth from God, and am come". And just as we remove places and changes of place from incorporeal beings, so also I say that "processions," whether "within" or "without," must be distinguished from the nature of intellectual beings, because these belong to bodies which admit of touch and which possess extension.

Therefore it must be believed with ineffable and only-known-by-faith speech that the Saviour is said to have gone forth from God, and that the Spirit of truth goes forth from the Father, the Spirit himself saying, "who goes forth from me." For although he could have said "from God," or "from the Lord," or "from the Almighty," he touched none of these; but he said, "from the Father"—not that the Father is other than God Almighty, for it would be wicked even to think this; but according to the property and the sense of "parent," the Spirit of truth is said to go forth from him. For although the Saviour frequently says that he himself went forth from God, yet the property (and, so to speak) the intimacy of which we have already often treated, he takes to himself more from the appellation of "Father," saying: "I am in the Father, and the Father in me".

And elsewhere: "I and the Father are one": and many other similar sayings, which the attentive reader will find in the Gospel. This Holy Spirit therefore, who goes forth from the Father, "will bear witness," says the Lord, "of me," bearing a testimony like that of the Father's testimony, concerning which he says: "He who sent me, the Father, bears witness of me". Now when the Son sends the Spirit of truth, whom he called the Comforter, the Father sends him too at the same time. For the Father does not fail to send when the Son sends, since the Spirit comes by the one same will of Father and Son: the Saviour also speaking through the Prophet—as will be able to be manifest to one who reads through the whole passage. "And the Lord sent me, and his Spirit": since God sends not only the Son, but also the Spirit.

But the Apostle also speaks: "The things which have now been announced to you by those who preached the gospel to you, the Holy Spirit having been sent from heaven". And in the book which is entitled Wisdom, a voice offering thanks to God is sent forth by those who have attained the divine gifts. "But the things that are in heaven, who has searched out? And your will, who has known—except that you have given wisdom, and sent your Holy Spirit from on high? And thus the paths of those who were upon the earth have been corrected, and men have been taught the things pleasing to you". And indeed in the present reading, not only the Wisdom of God—that is, his only-begotten Son—is given by the Father, but the Holy Spirit also is sent.

In the same Gospel it is likewise proclaimed that the Holy Spirit is given by the Father, and sent, the Saviour saying: "And I will ask my Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, that he may be with you forever, the Spirit of truth". And again, "But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things". For in these sayings also, the Father is said to give "another" Paraclete—not, however, one other than him who is sent by the Son, according to that word: "But when that Paraclete comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth". Whom he named "another" Paraclete, not according to a difference of nature, but according to a diversity of operation.

For since the Saviour holds the person of mediator and ambassador, and as high priest intercedes for our sins, saving forever those who through him have approached God, because he always lives to intercede with the Father for them; the Holy Spirit, according to another signification, has been named Paraclete, from the fact that he consoles those placed in sorrow. But do not, from the diverse operation of the Son and the Holy Spirit, suppose diverse natures. Since indeed in another place the Paraclete Spirit is found performing the office of ambassador to the Father, as in that passage: "For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unutterable groanings. But he who searches the hearts knows what the Spirit desires, how he asks according to God on behalf of the saints".

The Saviour also works in the hearts of those who need it that consolation from which the Holy Spirit has been named Paraclete. For it is written: "And he consoled the humble people". Whence also he who had obtained this benefit, proclaiming him, spoke: "Lord, according to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, your consolations have gladdened my heart"; or, "have delighted my soul": for it is found written both ways in different copies. But the Father also is called the God of all consolation: consoling those who are in tribulation, so that from those very straits, through patience, they may first attain salvation, and thereafter the crown of glory. The Spirit, therefore, the Comforter and Holy, and the Spirit of truth, is given by the Father, that he may always dwell with the disciples of Christ, with whom the Saviour himself also is, saying: "For behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the age".

But since the Holy Spirit and the Son are always present with the apostles, it follows that the Father too is with them, because he who receives the Son receives the Father also: and the Son makes his dwelling with the Father among those who have shown themselves worthy of his coming. But also, wherever the Holy Spirit is, the Son is immediately found there too. Since indeed, when the Holy Spirit is in the prophets, making them foretell the future, and doing the other things proper to prophetic operation, the word of God is said to have come to them, so that, in addition to that which is customary for the prophets, "Thus says the Lord," this too is added: "The word that came to Isaiah," or to the rest.

Now that the prophets had the Holy Spirit, we know by God's own manifest word. For he says: "Whatsoever I have commanded in my Spirit to my servants the prophets". And the Saviour in the Gospel signifies that the just men, and those who before his coming had sung to the people of things to come, were filled by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For indeed, questioning the Pharisees what they thought concerning Christ, and hearing that he was the son of David, he says: "How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying: The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand? If then David calls him Lord in the Holy Spirit, how is he his son?" And Peter speaks to his partners in the faith: "It was necessary that the Scripture be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas,".

And again in the same book: "You who by the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of David your servant, have said: Why did the nations rage, and the peoples meditate vain things?" Isaiah too, when he had been impelled by the word of God to prophesy, is recorded to have prophesied by the command of the Holy Spirit, as is written at the end of the same Acts: "Well did the Holy Spirit speak through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying: Go to this people, and say: With the ear you shall hear," and so on. This prophecy, therefore, which the Apostle Paul affirms was pronounced by the Holy Spirit, the very book of the prophet records as having been spoken by the Lord. "And I heard," says Isaiah, "the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people? And I said: Behold, here, send me. Go," he says, "and say to this people: With the ear you shall hear".

And after other things the Lord himself says: "And they shall be converted, and I will heal them." And immediately the prophet: "How long, O Lord?" For when the Lord had told the Prophet to say the things which are written, and the Prophet had answered the Lord's command, "How long, O Lord?"—those things which were said in the Prophet by the Lord, Paul affirms to have been spoken in the Holy Spirit. From which it is clearly shown, as we have already often said, that there is one will and one nature of the Lord and of the Holy Spirit, and that in the naming of "Spirit" the name of "Lord" also is understood. For just as, when addressing the Corinthians, the term "God" placed upon the Father, and "Lord" upon the Son, neither takes away lordship from the Father, nor deity from the Son: since by the same reasoning by which the Father is Lord, and the Son is God, so also the Holy Spirit is called Lord.

But if Lord, then consequently also God: as we have already said a little before, when we set forth the word of the Apostle Peter to Ananias, who had withheld money—because deity too is understood along with the Holy Spirit.

But since the order of the question has been led from this point: "But when the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, comes, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things": come now, let us inquire from this very saying, whether we can find in it anything to agree with what has been said. The Saviour affirms that the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father in his own name, though properly the Saviour's name is "Son"—since indeed a fellowship of nature, and (so to speak) a propriety of persons, is signified by that word; in which appellation of the Son, the Holy Spirit sent by the Father is to be understood not as a servant, not as another, nor as disjoined from the Son.

And just as the Son comes in the appellation of the Father, saying: "I have come in the name of my Father"—for it belongs only to the Son to come in the name of the Father, the propriety of the Son to the Father, and of the Father to the Son, being preserved—so, on the contrary, no one else comes in the name of the Father, but, for example's sake, in that of "Lord," and "God," and "Almighty." This you will be able to observe clearly if you reread the prophets with attention. For Moses too, the great minister and servant of God, came in the name of "He who is," and in the name of the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, God speaking to him thus: "Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: He who is, has sent me to you".

And again, "You shall say to them: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has sent me to you." For to servants of the righteous, such as they were of whom he said, "I will command by my Spirit my servants the prophets", the mission was made in the name of God. And because they showed themselves worthy of God, they are recorded to have come in the name of God. Again, advancing to something greater, and standing under the rule of the one God, they came in the appellation of God Almighty. But because the children of Israel, dwelling in Egypt, had learned to worship as gods those which are not gods, and to venerate the fathers of the world with divine honor: it was fitting that Moses should be sent to them under the title of "He who is," and, freeing them from false gods, should lead them across to the true deity, and to the Lord of the fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

How then do servants who come in the name of the Lord, by this very fact that they are subject and serve, indicate the Lord, referring to his property: for they are servants of the Lord: so also the Son who comes in the name of the Father bears the property and name of the Father, and by these things the only-begotten Son of God is approved. Since therefore the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father in the name of the Son, having the property of the Son according as he is God, yet not the property of sonship, so as to be his Son, he shows that he is joined in unity to the Son. Whence also he is called the Spirit of the Son, making by adoption sons of those who were willing to receive him. For, it says, since you are sons of God, the Father sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father.

But this Holy Spirit, who comes in the name of the Son, sent by the Father, will teach all things to those who are perfect in the faith of Christ. And all those things which are spiritual and intellectual: and, to sum up all in brief, all the mysteries of truth and wisdom. But he will teach not as a teacher and instructor of a discipline which he has acquired from elsewhere—since this belongs to those who have learned wisdom and certain arts by study and industry—but as being himself the art and teaching and wisdom and Spirit of truth, he insinuates invisibly into the mind the knowledge of divine things. For the Father also thus teaches his disciples, as one taught by him says: God, you have taught me wisdom. And another boldly cries out: You have taught me, O God, from my youth: and thus all become taught.

The Son of God also, and the Wisdom of God, and the Truth, so teaches those who share in him, that he teaches the discipline not by art, but by nature. Whence also, when they are taught, the disciples call him alone Master. These same disciplines, which are given by the Father and the Son into the hearts of believers, the Holy Spirit ministers to those who have ceased to be animal. For the animal man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit, thinking that what is said is foolishness; but he who has purged his mind of disturbances will be filled with the disciplines of the Holy Spirit, that is, with the words of wisdom and knowledge: to such a degree that he who has received them says: But God has revealed to us through the Holy Spirit.

Now God bestows the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, for the knowledge of himself, upon those who have thus prepared themselves: who, receiving the Spirit of wisdom, are made wise not from elsewhere, but by the Holy Spirit himself, and by him understand the Lord, and whatever is of the will of God, and know this same Spirit, by his own revealing, so that they know that these things have been given to them by the Lord: so that he who has attained the spirit of revelation and wisdom is sufficient to preach the doctrines of truth, relying not on human, but on divine art: even as we can hear one of the Apostles say: And my preaching and my speech were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of the power of God. But we cannot interpret any power equal to the Spirit except Christ our Lord. For he himself says to his disciples: For you shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you.

And the Angel said to Mary, The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you. Therefore the creative power of the Most High, the Holy Spirit coming upon the virgin Mary, fashioned the body of Christ: using this as his temple, he was born without the seed of man.

From these things it is shown that the Holy Spirit is creator, as we have already briefly shown in the volume of Dogmas. And in the Psalm it is said to the Lord: You will take away your Spirit from them, and they will fail, and return to their dust. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. Nor is it strange if the Holy Spirit be the maker of the Lord's body alone, when, joined with the Father and the Son, he created all things which the Father created and the Son, by the same power. Send forth, it says, your Spirit, and they shall be created. Moreover we have already frequently shown that the Holy Spirit is of the same operation as are the Father and the Son, and that in the same operation there is one substance: and that things which are ὁμοούσια (of one substance) also admit of an operation that is not diverse.

But that we may also set down another testimony which can help us in the faith of the Holy Spirit, in the Gospel the discourse is thus woven together: I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak from himself, but whatever he shall hear, he will speak: and he will announce to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me: because he will receive of mine, and will announce it to you. All things that the Father has are mine. Therefore I said to you: that he will receive of mine, and will announce it to you.

For by these words of the mysteries we are taught, that when Jesus had taught his disciples many things, he said: I have yet very many things to say to you; that this saying, I have yet many things to say to you, is directed not to any newcomers whatsoever, wholly empty of the grace of God, but to those who, as hearers of his words, had not yet obtained all things. For handing over to them whatever things could suffice, he put off the rest to a future time: things which, without the teaching of the Holy Spirit, they could not know: because before the coming of the Lord's passion the Holy Spirit had not been given to men, the Evangelist saying: For the Spirit had not yet been given to anyone, because Jesus was not yet glorified—saying that Jesus was glorified by tasting death for all. And so after the resurrection, appearing to his disciples, and breathing upon their faces, he said: Receive the Holy Spirit.

And again: You shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you. When he comes into the hearts of believers, they are filled with words of wisdom and knowledge, and thus, made spiritual, they receive the teaching of the Holy Spirit, which can lead them into all truth. For the hour not yet being at hand in which it was necessary for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit, then when he said to them, I have yet many things to say to you, he consequently added, but you cannot bear them now. For as yet, serving the type of the law, and the shadow, and the images, they could not behold the truth (whose shadow the law bore), and hence could not sustain spiritual things. But when, he says, he shall have come, that is, the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all truth, by his teaching and instruction transferring you from the death of the letter to the life-giving spirit, in which alone the whole truth of Scripture is placed.

This Spirit of truth, therefore, entering into a pure and simple mind, will seal in you the knowledge of truth, and, ever joining new things to the old, will guide you into all truth.

Also, someone directing prayers to God the Father, says: Guide me in your truth: that is, in your Only-begotten, his own voice testifying: I am the truth. This perfection God bestows in sending the Spirit of truth, who guides believers into the whole truth. Then, in what follows, concerning the Spirit of truth, who is sent by the Father, and is the Paraclete, the Savior (who is also the truth) says: For he will not speak from himself: that is, not without me, and without the decision of me and the Father, because he is inseparable from my will and the Father's. Because he is not of himself, but of the Father and me, for this very thing—that he subsists and speaks—is his from the Father and me. I speak the truth, that is, I inspire what he speaks. Since he is the Spirit of truth.

But "to say" and "to speak" in the Trinity is not to be understood according to our custom, by which we converse and speak to one another, but according to the manner of incorporeal natures, and especially of the Trinity, which instills its will into the hearts of believers, and of those who are worthy to hear it—this is, for it, to say and to speak.

For we men, when we speak to another about some matter, first conceive in mind what we wish, without speech. Then, wishing to transfer it into the perception of another, we set in motion the organ of the tongue, and, striking the strings of the teeth as with a kind of plectrum, we send forth vocal sound. Just as, then, we bend the tongue, which we strike against palate and teeth, and temper the struck air into various utterances, so that we may communicate to others things known to us, so also it is necessary that the hearer offer open ears, not narrowed by any defect, and prick them up to the things being said, so that he may know as fully what is uttered as he who speaks knows it. But God, of a simple and uncompounded and spiritual nature, has neither ears, nor the organs by which voice is emitted; but, being a solitary and incomprehensible substance, is composed of no members or parts.

And the same is to be understood likewise of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

If then we ever read in the Scriptures: The Lord said to my Lord. And elsewhere: God said, Let there be light, and whatever things are like these, we ought to understand them in a manner worthy of God. For the Father does not announce his will to a Son who is ignorant, since everything that he speaks, subsisting as wise and true, he has both in wisdom and in substance. That the Father speaks, therefore, and the Son hears, or, conversely, that when the Son speaks the Father hears, is a signification of the same nature and of consent between Father and Son. The Holy Spirit also, who is the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of wisdom, cannot, when the Son speaks, hear things he does not know, since this very thing which is uttered by the Son is that which proceeds from the Truth—the Comforter flowing from the Comforter, God from God, the Spirit of truth proceeding.

Finally, lest anyone should separate him from the will and fellowship of the Father and the Son, it is written: For he will not speak from himself, but as he shall hear, he will speak. To which also the Savior says something similar of himself: As I hear, I judge. And elsewhere: The Son can do nothing of himself, unless he sees the Father doing it. For if the Son is one with the Father, not according to the saying of Sabellius, who confounds the Father and the Son, but according to the indistinction of essence or substance, he cannot do anything without the Father, because the works of things separated are diverse, but seeing the Father working, he himself also works, not in a second rank, working after him. For the works of the Father would begin to be other than those of the Son, if they were not done equally. But it is written: For whatever things he does, without doubt the Father, these same things the Son likewise does.

But if, when the Father and the Son work not according to an order of first and second, but at the same time of operation, the same and not dissimilar things, all that comes to be subsists, and the Son cannot do anything of himself, because he cannot be separated from the Father, so also the Holy Spirit, in no way separated from the Son, on account of the fellowship of will and nature, is not believed to speak of himself, but speaks all the things he speaks according to the Word and Truth of God. The following words of the Lord confirm this opinion, when he says: He will glorify me, that is, the Paraclete; because he will receive of mine. Again here, "to receive" must be understood as befits the divine nature.

Just as, then, the Son, in giving, is not deprived of what he bestows, nor does he impart to others at his own loss, so also the Spirit does not receive what he did not have before. For if he received what he previously did not have, the gift having been transferred to another, the giver would be made empty, ceasing to have what he bestowed. As we understood above, then, when discussing incorporeal natures, so now also is it to be understood that the Holy Spirit receives from the Son that which belonged to his own nature, and this does not signify one giving and one receiving, but one substance. Since the Son also is said to receive from the Father the very things by which he himself subsists. For the Son is nothing other than what is given to him by the Father, nor is the substance of the Holy Spirit anything other than what is given to him by the Son.

And these things are said for this reason: that we may believe the nature of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity to be the same as that of the Father and the Son.

Since therefore every human voice can judge nothing else than bodies, and the Trinity, of which our present discourse is, surpasses all material substances, therefore no word can properly be fitted to it, nor signify its substance, but everything we say is καταχρηστικῶς, that is, by way of misuse, both concerning all incorporeal things, and especially when we speak of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit therefore glorifies the Son, showing him and bringing him forth into the open to those who are worthy, with a pure heart, to understand and to see him, and to know the splendor of his substance, and the image of the invisible God. Again the Image itself, showing itself to pure minds, glorifies the Father, making him known to those who do not know him; for he himself says: He who sees me sees also the Father. The Father also, revealing the Son to those who have merited to reach the summit of knowledge, glorifies his only-begotten, showing his magnificence and power.

But the Son himself also, bestowing the Holy Spirit on those who have prepared themselves worthy of his gift, and unfolding the sublimity of the glorification and the greatness of his power, glorifies him. Then, adding an interpretation when he had just said, he shall receive of mine, he immediately added: All things that the Father has are mine; therefore I said, he shall receive of mine and shall announce it to you, speaking in a certain manner: Although the Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father, and God gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him, yet because all things that the Father has are mine, the Spirit himself, who is of the Father, is also mine, and he shall receive of mine. But beware, when these things are said, lest you slip into a grievous error of understanding, and think that there is some thing or possession which is held by the Father and the Son.

Rather, what the Father has according to substance—that is, eternity, immutability, incorruption, unchangeable goodness, subsisting of itself and in itself—this same the Son also has. And, to add further, whatever the Son himself subsists as, and whatever things are the Son's, these same the Father also has. Far from here be the snares of dialecticians, and let sophisms be driven from the truth, which, taking occasion for impiety from pious preaching, say: Therefore the Father is also the Son, and the Son the Father. For if he had said, all things whatsoever God has are mine, impiety would have had occasion to fabricate, and the falsehood would seem plausible. But since he said, All things that the Father has are mine, he declared himself the Son by the name of the Father, he did not usurp the Fatherhood, who was the Son—although he himself too, through the grace of adoption, is the Father of many saints, according to what is read in the Psalms: If your children shall keep.

And again, If his children shall forsake my law. But in this discourse and with this sense set forth, consequently the things which we said above belong to the Father, the Son also has, and the things which are the Son's, the Holy Spirit also has. For he says, he shall receive of mine, therefore he shall also announce to you things to come. For through the Spirit of truth, certain knowledge of future things is granted to holy men. Whence also the prophets, filled with this same Spirit, foretold with their understanding, and beheld as if present the things that were afterward to follow. Let this suffice, abundantly enough according to the poverty of our talent, to have said concerning the present chapter of the Gospel.

But if the Lord has revealed to some, and they have been brought into the neighborhood of truth, and can perceive the truth more fully, let us yield to their disputation the better things, to whom he lends his support who is the Spirit of truth: and we ask those who are going to read this, that they pardon our inexperience, and grant forgiveness to our zeal, since we desire to offer God all that we could, though we have not been able to fulfill our own will.

Let us also set forth the testimony of the Apostle's epistle to the Romans: and let us examine whatever in it seems to us to suit the present matter. That the justification of the law, he says, may be fulfilled in you: who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For they who are according to the flesh mind the things of the flesh. But they who are according to the spirit perceive the things of the spirit. For the wisdom of the flesh is death. But the wisdom of the spirit is life and peace: because the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be. And they who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit: if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

And if Christ be in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit lives because of justice. And if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you: he who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of his Spirit dwelling in you. Therefore, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die. But if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live. For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received again the spirit of bondage unto fear: but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. For the Spirit himself gives testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God.

And if sons, then heirs also, heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. In this chapter of the Apostle very much is shown concerning the fellowship of the Spirit which he has with the Father and the Son. For the Apostle says that divine justification and the fulfillment of the spiritual law are accomplished in those who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. The Apostolic word has described one walking according to the flesh as one who, joined to the body through the pleasures and vices of the flesh, does all things that belong to the flesh and the works of the body. But one walking according to the Spirit is he who, proceeding in the precepts of the law of God and of the Gospel, follows the order of spiritual commandments.

For just as it is the vice of carnal men to savor the things of the flesh, to think the things of bodies, so, on the contrary, it is the virtue of spiritual men always to think of heavenly and eternal things, and to occupy themselves with the things that are of the spirit. But the wisdom of the flesh, joined at once with death, kills those who walk and savor according to the flesh; while the wisdom of the spirit bestows tranquility of mind and peace, and grants eternal life to those who possess it. And when they have possessed it, they will have under their feet all disturbances and kinds of vices, and even the demons themselves (who strive to suggest these things). The wisdom of the flesh, therefore, since it is joined to death, is enmity against God. For it renders enemies those who have lived by its laws: always contrary to and at war with the will and law of God.

For it cannot be that one who is in the wisdom of the flesh should keep the precepts of God, and be subject to his will. As long as we serve pleasures, we cannot serve God. But when we have subjected wanton lust beneath our feet, and, transferring ourselves wholly to the spirit, have in no way remained in the flesh—that is, in the passions of the flesh—then we shall be subject to God. For the Apostle's word does not concern this flesh in which we live, and in whose vessel our soul is contained, since all the saints, surrounded by body and flesh, have pleased God: but rather concerns that which is committed against God's precept through human fellowship, of which it is said: You shall love the Lord your God. And, What you would not have done to yourself.

But you, he says—without doubt disciples of Christ, who have received the wisdom of the Spirit, and life and peace—are not in the flesh, that is, in the works of the flesh, nor do you commit its works, since you have the Spirit of God in you. Now the same Spirit of God is also the Spirit of Christ, leading and joining him who has him to the Lord Jesus Christ. Whence also it is written in what follows: But if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Again in the present passage we learn the fellowship which the Holy Spirit has with God and with Christ. But also in the Epistle of Peter, it is proved that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ: Searching, he says, and inquiring—that is, the Prophets, of whom he had spoken above—into what and what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, who was in them, signified: testifying beforehand the sufferings that were to be in Christ, and the glories that should follow after: to whom it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to us they ministered the things which are now declared to you by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. Now this same Holy Spirit is called also the Spirit of God, not only in this passage but in many other places, as here: The things that are of God no man knows, but the Spirit of God.

Then follows, after what he said: But if any man has not the Spirit of God, he is none of his—and it is inferred, But if Christ be in you; and it is most clearly shown that the Holy Spirit is inseparable from Christ: because wherever the Holy Spirit is, there also is Christ, and from wherever the Spirit of Christ has departed, from thence Christ too withdraws equally. For if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if anyone should take up the converse of this, he can say: If any man is Christ's, so that Christ is in him, in him is the Spirit of God. And this same thing must likewise be applied concerning God the Father. If any man has not the Spirit of God, he is none of his. And again, if anyone takes up the converse of this, saying: If any man is God's, in him is the Spirit of God.

Whence it is written: Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? And in the epistle of John: In this it is known that God dwells in certain ones, when the Spirit which he gave has remained in them. From all these things the inseparable and undivided substance of the Trinity is shown.

When, therefore, he says: If Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin: it in no way serves vices and wantonness, but, mortified to sin, is not moved to vices, and will in no way be vital for sin. But after the body has been dead to sin, Christ, present in those who have mortified their bodies, shows the Spirit of life through justice—whether through the correction of works of immortal virtues, or through faith in Jesus Christ, in those who conduct themselves according to his faith.

Then the Apostle uses another linked syllogism, which the dialecticians more significantly call ἀξίωμα, and says: But if the Spirit of him who raised up Christ from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, through his Spirit dwelling in you: does it not seem to you that he is saying, that if the Spirit of him who raised up Christ Jesus—that is, who is the Spirit of that same Jesus Christ—dwells in you: consequently your mortal bodies also shall be quickened together with your immortal souls by him who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead, the prince and firstborn of the resurrection? And to those to whom such and so great a gift has been divinely granted through the Spirit, we are debtors to the Spirit, not to the flesh, to live according to it. For whoever has lived according to the flesh shall die that death which follows sin.

For sin, when it is consummated, generates death, according to James. But Ezekiel also writes that the sinning soul dies. For it is already separated from the life which is placed in the wisdom of the Spirit.

But if anyone transcends the life of the flesh and by the Spirit mortifies the works of the flesh, he shall live a blessed and eternal life, restored among the sons of God, and directed into the right way because of the Holy Spirit, who is also called the Spirit of God. For if, he says, you live according to the flesh, you shall die. But if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live. And in what follows: For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Again refreshing and consoling them, and provoking those to whom he spoke to hope for better things, he says: For you have not received again the spirit of bondage unto fear: that is, you do not abstain from vices in the manner of servants, through fear and terror of punishments; because you have been given by the Father the Spirit of adoption, that is, the Holy Spirit, who himself is called the Spirit both of God and of Christ, and of truth and of wisdom. But if this Spirit adopts into sons of God those to whom, by his condescension, he becomes an indweller, I leave to you the understanding of the consequent matters concerning his power.

Moreover, in this Spirit of adoption they who have received him cry out, "Father," to God, as the word shows, saying: In whom we cry, Abba, Father: by that very Spirit who adopts us into sons, bearing witness by participation in himself, which is possessed by our spirit, that we are sons of God. It follows from this that God, as a father, has conferred upon us hereditary riches, spiritual gifts; and that we are joint heirs with Christ, since we are called his brothers through his grace and kindness. But we shall be heirs of God, and joint heirs of Christ, if we suffer with him: that we may deserve both to be glorified together and to share in his sufferings.

But since this too has been discussed as far as we were able, let us set forth a chapter of the Prophet containing certain matters concerning the Holy Spirit, so that we may be instructed concerning faith in him and understanding of him not only from the New but also from the Old Testament. For above also we have said beforehand that in all the saints, both those who lived after the coming of our Lord and also those before, namely in the Patriarchs and Prophets, the grace of the Holy Spirit was at work, and filled them with diverse charisms and virtues. For just as those who possessed the grace of the one God and of his Only-begotten, both those before and those after his coming, who raised up the standard of righteousness, attained to the knowledge of the truth; so too they will possess the grace of the Holy Spirit, since we have shown in many places above that the Holy Spirit is inseparable from the Father and the Son.

It is written, therefore, in the Prophet: I have remembered the mercies of the Lord, and his power, in all the things which he has rendered to us. The Lord is a good judge to the house of Israel, dealing with us according to his mercy, and according to the abundance of his righteousness. And he said: Are they not my people, sons? And they shall not deal falsely. And he became their salvation out of all their tribulation; not an envoy, nor an angel, but he himself saved them: because he loved them, and spared them. He himself redeemed them, and took them up, and exalted them all the days of the world. But they did not believe, and provoked his Holy Spirit; and he turned to be their enemy. He himself fought against them, and remembered the days of old. He who brought up out of the earth the shepherd of the sheep, who put in them his Holy Spirit, gathering by his right hand Moses.

Those who have frequently obtained the benefits of God, knowing that they attained them by his grace and mercy rather than by their own works, speak, as it were, with one consent and mind in agreement, "I have remembered the mercies of the Lord." For thinking on the gifts which they had often received from him in Moses, they give thanks, and along with his mercy they also recall the powers of the Lord, whether the wonders which he frequently wrought for them among the peoples, or the advancements of soul in which they were instructed by the Law, the Prophets, and his wholesome precepts. For indeed in the Scriptures the term "power" signifies both. To remember, then, his mercy and his powers, they say, in all things which he rendered to them, not according to his justice, but according to his mercy and goodness, he who is judge to the house that sees, and to the sense that perceives the Lord with a clean heart.

For this, indeed, is what "Israel" is interpreted from the Hebrew tongue into our language: that is, "a mind seeing God." For although a judge sometimes inflicts torments and punishments as judgment upon those who deserve it, yet he who looks more deeply into the causes of things, seeing the purpose of his goodness—of him who desires to correct the sinner—confesses him to be good, saying, "Dealing with us according to his mercy." For if the Lord should mark iniquities, who shall stand? Moreover, since with the Lord there is propitiation: our Lord and Savior indeed deals with us according to his mercy, granting all things that may advance us toward salvation. Also "dealing with us according to his mercy," and doing this in judgment, when he grants us with justice what he has bestowed mingled with the goodness of mercy.

The error of the heretics is to be refuted from the present chapter, who, separating goodness from justice, have invented one God good and another just. For behold, here at once God himself is both good, and judge, and, restoring according to his mercy and justice, is at the same time both good and just. In vain therefore, feigning an unrighteous doctrine, do they maintain that the God of the Gospel is good, and the God of the Old Testament is just, since in very many other places, and now in the Prophet's discourse, God is written as "a good judge," and, on the contrary—which they do not wish—in the Epistle of the Apostle Paul (who is certainly a preacher of the New Testament) God is called a just judge. "There is laid up for me," he says, "a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me in that day".

The God, then, of the New and the Old Testament, the maker of visible and invisible things, is the same, however unwilling they may be, the Savior also in the Gospel clearly attesting the Father to be just and good: "Righteous Father, the world has not known thee". And in another place: "No one is good, but God alone". But also in the old Law God is called in one place just, in another good. In the Psalms: "The Lord is righteous," he says, "and he has loved righteousness". And on the other hand in Jeremiah: "The Lord is good to those who wait for him." Again in the Psalms: "How good is the God of Israel to those who are upright in heart". And these things indeed have been said briefly, in passing, against the heretics.

It is time now to pursue the order proposed by the Prophet, which continues thus: "And he said," there is no doubt that it is the Lord, "Are not my people sons, and shall they not deal falsely?" They were not, he says, like those who were begotten and exalted, and yet despised him who begot them. "And he became their salvation," that is, the salvation of those of whom the Lord says, "Are not my people sons, and shall they not deal falsely?" For this very fact, that they did not deal falsely nor spurn their father, became for them salvation; or indeed, on this very account that they were called sons, this became for them the cause of salvation. This salvation, bestowed through Christ the Lord, is also confirmed by the voice of the angel to the shepherds, saying: "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people; for unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David".

He himself has become for all who believe in him the occasion of eternal salvation, and he himself is the Savior of the world, who came to seek that which was lost. And he is the one of whom the choir of the saints sings: "Our God, the God of salvation".

Since, therefore, it was God who provided eternal salvation, it is said: "Not an envoy, nor an angel," that is, not a Prophet, not a Patriarch, not the lawgiver Moses saved them. For all whom I have named could perform an embassy to the Lord on behalf of the people. Indeed Moses, interceding with him for the sinning people, said: "If thou wilt forgive them their sin, forgive it". But he besought pardon, fasting forty days, and provoking the mercy of God by the affliction of his soul. But none of the number of these envoys can be a savior, since he himself needs him who is the true bestower of salvation. For angels too, though they are spirits, and are sent for various ministries on account of those who are to receive salvation, are nevertheless not authors of salvation, but interpret and announce him who is the fountain of salvation.

Whence it is said: "Not an envoy, nor an angel, but the Lord himself saved them." Not on account of anything else, but because he loved them, and spared them. And he is said to spare them as his own creatures, according to what is written elsewhere: "But thou sparest all things, O Lord, thou lover of souls, for they are thine, neither shalt thou hate what thou hast made". Wherefore also, not sparing his own Son for their salvation, the Father delivered him up to death, that through the death of his Son, having destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, he might redeem all who were held by him in the bond of captivity.

Whence it is added: "He himself redeemed them, and took them up, and exalted them." For he takes up and exalts those who are saved and redeemed, and lifts them on high on the wings of virtues, and by instruction and the knowledge of truth, not for one day or another only, but all the days of eternity, dwelling in them and with them, and granting them life even to the consummation of the age, being the author of salvation. And illuminating their hearts all the days of the age, he does not allow them to dwell in the darkness of ignorance and error. And this I think is what is meant by "they are exalted all the days."

But since, being mutable and prone of their own accord to fall into vices, after so many benefits they were unbelieving toward God, and forsook his commandments, and provoked to anger the Holy Spirit of God, who had bestowed on them many good things, they fell into a like sin with those who, after they were begotten and exalted, spurned their father. Or certainly here they themselves are described, who were also described before, since there too, after the sin, it is said to them: "You have forsaken the Lord, and provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel," and now, that they themselves did not believe, and provoked to anger his Holy Spirit. From the present passage, therefore, the fellowship of the Spirit with the Lord is shown. He who forsakes the Lord, and is unbelieving, and provokes to anger the Holy One of Israel, also provokes to anger his Holy Spirit. The same indignation against sinners is referred both to the Holy Spirit and to the Holy One of Israel.

Whence also in what follows a like conjunction of the Trinity is shown, the Scripture saying that the Lord was turned to enmity against those who provoked his Holy Spirit, and delivered them to everlasting torment, after they had blasphemed his Holy Spirit not in word but in deed. He himself, then, who was turned to enmity against them, fought against them, and subjected them to manifold and lengthy torments, so that neither in the present time nor in the future should they obtain forgiveness of sins. For they provoked his Holy Spirit to anger, and blasphemed against him.

But if you wish to understand this of the Jews, who crucified the Lord Savior, and on that account provoked the Holy Spirit, that which is written, "He himself fought against them," must be referred to that understanding, that they were delivered up to the Romans, when the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost. For in the whole world and in all regions they alone, exiles from their fatherland, wander in a foreign land, possessing neither their ancient city nor their own dwellings—they have received what they did to the Prophets and to their Savior. For since, bloodthirsty and always seized with mad fury, they not only killed the Prophets and stoned those who were sent to them, but going forth to the very summit of impiety, betrayed and crucified the Lord Savior, who had deigned to come down to earth for the salvation of all, therefore they were expelled from the city which they had stained with the blood of the Prophets and of Christ.

According to this sense, therefore, we ought to understand that they were fought against by the Lord, not for a short time, but for the whole age to come, even to the consummation of the world. For indeed (as we have said) fugitives and captives, they wander among all nations, possessing neither city nor region of their own. Yet, since he who fought against them is by nature kind and merciful, he has granted them a place of repentance, if they wish to be converted to better things. Whence it is also said: "He remembered the days of the age." For remembering the times to come, he has in some part unlocked the closed door, so that after the fullness of the Gentiles shall have entered in, then all Israel (who shall be worthy of that name) shall be saved.

For although they broke out into such rashness as to kill him who had been sent for their sake, saying, "His blood be upon us, and upon our children", yet God raised him up from the earth, in whose heart he had remained for three days and three nights: the shepherd of his sheep. For thus it continues: "Who brought up out of the earth the shepherd of his sheep".

But that the shepherd of the sheep, God, who is now described in the word of the Prophet, is the Lord, we learn more clearly in the Gospel, the Saviour himself bearing witness: I am the good shepherd, and I lay down my soul for my sheep. And again, My sheep hear my voice. After all these things the Prophet says, Where is he who set among them his Holy Spirit? For he marvels from how great a felicity into how great miseries they have fallen. And he speaks, as it were, in this manner: He who had redeemed them, who had placed among them his Holy Spirit, dwelling with them—where is he now? Whither has he gone? He has forsaken them, because they themselves first forsook him, and provoked to wrath the Holy One of Israel. But God had of old placed his Holy Spirit among them, when they were still good, and strove to obey his commandments.

For the Holy Spirit is implanted only in those who, having forsaken vices, follow the chorus of virtues, and live according to them, and through them, in the faith of Christ. But if by degrees, negligence creeping in, they begin to flow toward worse things, they stir up against themselves their indwelling Holy Spirit, and turn him who had given him into an enemy. To this something similar the Apostle also says, writing to the Thessalonians: For God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto sanctification.

Therefore he who despises, or, as is better held in the Greek, he who transgresses, does not transgress against man, but against God, who gave his Holy Spirit in you. For in these words God, calling through faith unto sanctification—that is, that believers might become holy in the Spirit—gave them the Holy Spirit. And as long as they kept the commandments of God, the Holy Spirit whom they had received remained in them. But when through slippery love they fell, and slid down into uncleanness, they despised, or transgressed against, the Lord who had given them the Holy Spirit, that they might not be given over to uncleanness, but be sanctified. Wherefore those who have committed these things shall pay the penalty, as despising not man, but God. And that we may know that the Holy Spirit, who is given to believers, is the Lord, let us learn it from the very speech of the Prophet Isaiah, who introduces the Lord saying to someone: My Spirit is in you, and my words I have put in your mouth.

For it is shown from the present statement that whoever receives the Spirit of God, together with him also possesses the words of God, namely the discourses of knowledge and wisdom. And also in another place of the same Prophet, God speaks: I have given my Spirit upon him. He, therefore, who placed among them the Holy Spirit, records that Moses was sanctified by his right hand: whether that illustrious man, the initiator of the mysteries of God, of whom the Lord says to Jesus the son of Nave: Moses my servant—or his Law, which is written in the Old Instrument. For I remember having read frequently that Moses is called for the Law, as in the Apostle: Even to this present day, when Moses is read. And Abraham says to the rich man placed in torments, They have Moses and the Prophets. And certainly it is clearly proved there that Moses signifies not the aforesaid man, but the Law.

Furthermore, what is the right hand of God, which led Moses, but our Lord and Saviour? For he is the right hand of the Father, through whom he saves, and exalts, and works power, as elsewhere it is said of God: He has saved for himself by his right hand, and his holy arm. And again: The right hand of the Lord has wrought strength, the right hand of the Lord has exalted me: I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. And certainly that this utterance is put forth from the person of the Lord's Man, whom the only-begotten Son of God deigned to assume from the virgin, is manifestly proven from that very passage, since he himself is the right hand of God, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles, that he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, born of a virgin, the Holy Spirit coming upon her, and the power of the Highest overshadowing her.

Of whom David prophesied in the Spirit, that rising from the dead, he was taken up into the heavens, lifted up by the right hand of God. It is written there in this manner: This same David, foreseeing, spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that he was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this gift among us, which you see and hear; for David did not ascend into the heavens. For no one doubts that it is the Lord Jesus who was exalted by the right hand of God, and who rose from the dead, as he himself testified in the word of Scripture. This one, therefore, who rose from the dead, says: I slept and took my rest, and rose again, because the Lord raised me up.

He, therefore, who by the word of God was taken up into heaven, is proclaimed to have been lifted up by that right hand of God of which we spoke above, and to have received the promises of the Holy Spirit from the Father, and to have poured him out upon believers, so that they spoke in the tongues of all men the great works of God. For the Lord's Man also received the communication of the Holy Spirit, as it is written in the Gospels: Jesus, therefore, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan. And in another place: Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.

But these things we must receive concerning the Lord's Man, who as whole Christ is one Jesus the Son of God, without any calumny, in a sense of piety—not that he is one and another, but that concerning one and the same, discourse is held, as it were, of another, according to the nature of God and of man; and because God the Word, the only-begotten Son of God, receives neither change nor increase. Since he himself is the fulness of all good things.

Enough and more than enough has been discussed on the testimony of the Prophet, nor let us proceed to the remaining matters, so that, as we know that the Father and the Son perfect the holy and good through communication of themselves, so also the Holy Spirit, by participation of himself, makes believers good and holy; and from this also it may be taught that he is of one substance with the Father and the Son. It is said in the Psalms to the Lord: Your good Spirit shall lead me into the right land. But we know that in certain copies it is written: Your Holy Spirit. Moreover in Esdras, without any ambiguity, he is called the good Spirit: You gave your good Spirit, to make them understand. But that the Father sanctifies, the Apostle writes, saying: But the God of peace sanctify you perfect. And the Saviour says: Holy Father, sanctify them in truth, for your word is truth. Speaking plainly: sanctify them in me (who am your word, and your truth) by faith and fellowship with me.

God also is called good elsewhere: None is good, but one, God. We have also shown above that the Son sanctifies, Paul agreeing in the same words: For both he who sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one. Signifying Christ as the one who sanctifies, and those who are sanctified as those who can say, Christ was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification. Indeed he is also called the Spirit of sanctification. Whence also it is said to him, And all are sanctified under your hands, and are under you. Our Lord Jesus Christ is good, and was begotten of a good Father, and of him we read, Give praise to the Lord, for he is good. Let those, however, give praise to him, who either beg pardon of sins from him, or return thanks to his clemency for benefits granted. The Holy Spirit also sanctifies those whom he deigns to fill, as has already been shown above, when we showed that he is participable and can be received by many at once.

And now in the present testimony of Paul he is shown to be the bestower of sanctification, in that he says: But we ought also to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has chosen us as firstfruits unto salvation, in sanctification of the Spirit and faith of the truth. For in this place too the graces of God are understood in the Spirit, since in the sanctification of the Spirit, faith and truth are equally possessed.

Since, therefore, we have said these things rightly, and piously, and as the truth holds, the term of sanctification and goodness is referred equally to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, just as the very appellation of Spirit also. For the Father too is called Spirit, as there: God is Spirit. And the Son is Spirit: The Lord, it says, is the Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is always designated by the appellation of Holy Spirit, not because he is set alongside the Father and the Son only from a sharing of the name of Spirit, but because, being one nature, he also possesses one name. But since the word Spirit signifies many things, it must be briefly enumerated to what things its name is applied. Spirit is also called wind, as in Ezekiel: But a third part you shall scatter into the spirit—that is, into the wind.

But if you wish to understand according to the history that which is written, With a violent spirit you shall break the ships of Tarshish, nothing else is understood there by spirit than wind. Also Solomon among many things received this gift from God as well, to know the violences of spirits; showing that he had received in this nothing else than to know the rapid blasts of winds, and by what causes their nature subsists. The soul too is called spirit, as in the Epistle of James: As your body without the spirit is dead, and so forth. For most plainly here spirit is named as nothing else but the soul. According to which understanding Stephen also, calling his soul spirit, says, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. That also which is said in Ecclesiastes: Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward, and the spirit of the beast goes downward? It is to be considered whether the souls of beasts too are called spirits.

It is also said, apart from the soul, and apart from our spirit, that there is some other Spirit in man, of whom Paul writes: For who among men knows the things of a man, but the spirit of man which is in him? For if anyone should wish to contend that the soul is here signified in "spirit," what man will there be whose thoughts, and secrets, and hidden things of the heart, a man does not know, except his spirit—since it is utterly foolish to wish to understand this of the solitary body.

But if someone strives with subtle deceit to creep in, alleging that these things were written of the Holy Spirit; if he carefully considers the very words, he will cease to assert the falsehood. For it is written thus: For who among men knows the things of a man, but the spirit of man which is in him. So too the things of God no one knows, but the Spirit of God. For just as man is one thing, God another, so also the spirit of man, which is in him, is separated from the Spirit of God, which is in him—which Spirit we have frequently shown to be the Holy Spirit. But in another place also the same Apostle, distinguishing the Spirit of God from our spirit, says, The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit: signifying by this that the Spirit of God, that is, the Holy Spirit, bears witness to our spirit, which we have now said to be the spirit of man.

To the Thessalonians too he says: May your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved. For just as soul is one thing, and body another, so also spirit is other than the soul, which is specially named in its own place. Of which he also prayed, that it be preserved whole with the soul and body, since it would be incredible, and indeed blasphemous, for the Apostle to pray that the Holy Spirit be preserved whole, he who can receive neither diminution nor increase.

Of the human spirit, therefore, as we have said, the word of the Apostle here bears witness.

The heavenly and rational powers also, which Scripture is accustomed to call Angels and Powers, are termed by the name of spirit, as here: Who makest thy Angels spirits. And elsewhere, Are they not all ministering spirits? I think it is to this sense that what is written in the Acts of the Apostles is also to be referred: The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more; that is, the Angel of the Lord, lifting Philip on high, transferred him to another place. Other rational creatures also, flowing of their own accord from good into evil, are called most wicked spirits, and unclean spirits: as here: But when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man. And in what follows: He taketh seven other spirits more wicked than himself. Demons also are called spirits in the Gospels.

But this too must be noted, that never is "spirit" simply used, but with some addition, when a contrary spirit is meant, such as unclean spirit, and spirit of a demon; whereas those that are holy are called spirits simply, without any addition.

It must also be known that the name "spirit" signifies as well the will of man and the disposition of the mind. For wishing the virgin to be holy not only in deed but also in mind, that is, not only in body but also in the inward movement of the heart, the Apostle says, That she may be holy in body and in spirit: meaning by spirit the will, and by body the works. Consider whether this same sense is meant in Isaiah, where it is written: And they who err in spirit shall know understanding. For those who through error of judgment esteem some things good instead of others shall receive understanding, that their error may be corrected, so that instead of the depraved they may choose the things that are right. See also whether that other passage, One fortitude of your spirit, shows the same thing.

And above all, the term spirit signifies in the holy Scriptures a higher and mystical understanding, as here: The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life; calling "letter" the simple and plain narration according to the history; but "spirit," the holy and spiritual sense of what is read. To this meaning also agrees that saying: We are the circumcision, who serve the Lord in spirit, and have no confidence in the flesh. For they who do not cut the flesh by the letter, but circumcise the heart by the spirit, removing all its superfluity, which is nearest and dear to generation—these are truly circumcised in spirit, Jews in secret, and true Israelites, in whom is no guile.

Those who, passing beyond the shadows and images of the Old Testament, are true worshippers, adore the Father in spirit and in truth: in spirit, because they have passed beyond corporeal and lowly things; in truth, because, leaving behind the types and shadows and patterns, they have come to the very substance of truth itself; and, as we have already said, having despised the lowly and corporeal simplicity of words, they have arrived at the spiritual knowledge of the law.

These things, meanwhile, we have touched upon according to the capacity of our understanding, as to how many things "spirit" may signify; in due time, if Christ shall grant it, we will discuss what each signifies. Sometimes, moreover, our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, the Son of God, is called Spirit. For the Spirit of wisdom is kind. And in another place: Now the Lord is the Spirit, as we said before, where we also added this: God is a Spirit, not merely according to a community of name, but according to a fellowship of nature and substance. For just as it sometimes happens that things of diverse substance are called by a common name, and these are called ὁμώνυμα (homonyms); so of things which have the same nature and substance, along with the fellowship of the name, an equality of nature is also joined, and it is the practice of the Dialecticians to call these συνώνυμα (synonyms).

Therefore the name Spirit, and whatever else is customarily used of the Trinity, is συνώνυμον: for example, holy, good, and other such things, which we touched upon a little before.

Further, we have of necessity been led to this point: that, since the appellation "Spirit" is frequently sprinkled through the divine Scriptures, we should not stumble on the name, but should understand each instance according to the variety of the passages and their meanings. Therefore, with all study and diligence, considering where and how the term "spirit" is applied, let us crush the sophisms and fraudulent snares of those who assert that the Holy Spirit is a creature. For reading in the Prophet, I am he that confirmeth the thunder, and createth the spirit, through ignorance of the manifold use of the word in this passage, they have thought the Holy Spirit to be indicated by this term, whereas here the name "spirit" signifies wind.

Likewise, hearing in Zechariah that the Lord spoke, that it is he who creates the spirit of man within him, they have supposed that the Holy Spirit is signified in this chapter too, not noticing that the term "spirit" signifies the soul of man, or the spirit (which we have already said is the third element in man). Therefore, as we have said before, let us consider how each thing is said, lest perchance through ignorance we fall into the abyss of error. For indeed in other matters, error arising from a fellowship of terms brings confusion and shame upon him who has erred; but a fall from things heavenly and divine into depraved notions leads to eternal punishment and to Tartarus, especially when one who has once been deceived is unwilling to come to his senses, but shamelessly defends his error. It was fitting also, and the greatness of the light demanded, that the discourse should here receive its end.

But since a question presents itself against what we discussed above—which we then passed over, lest it interrupt the flow of the discourse, and an impious contention be set amid a pious preaching—I think it necessary to answer to the point, and to leave to the reader's judgment what he may think about these things. When, therefore, we were disputing above that no creature can fill the soul or mind of man according to substance, but only the Trinity, since it is only according to operation, and the error of the will, or according to virtue, that the mind is filled by created things—our question arose, as if undoing that conclusion, because a created substance, which in the Scriptures is called Satan, enters into some, and is said to fill the heart of certain persons. For to him who kept back part of the price of the field he had sold, professing something else, it was said by Peter the Apostle, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thy heart?

And of Judas the Savior himself says that Satan entered into him. To this we must reply hereafter. Meanwhile let us now discuss what is written, Why hath Satan filled thy heart?—how Satan fills someone's mind and the ruling part of the heart, without entering into him and into his sense, and, so to speak, entering the door of the heart: since this power belongs to the Trinity alone; but as a certain crafty, wicked, deceitful, and fraudulent deceiver, he draws the human soul into the disposition of malice, through thoughts and incentives to vices, of which he himself is full. Indeed, Elymas the magician also, son of the devil, subsisting according to malice and wickedness, full of all guile and malice, is written to have Satan as his father, this will of his turning, as it were, from habit of vices into nature. Rebuking and reproving him, therefore, the Apostle Paul says: O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness of God.

For because he was crafty and cunning, having taken up in himself all deceit and fraud, he is called a son of the devil, because he himself filled his whole ruling part with the fraud, iniquity, and malice of the devil: enticing and deceiving him to such a degree, that Satan himself was thought to have filled his soul, and to dwell in the same man, whom he had prepared as a minister and servant unto all the wiles of his own perversity.

But as to the second example we had set forth, that Satan entered into Judas, this must be said. The devil, observing by certain movements and signs of operations to what vices especially Judas's heart was most prone, perceived him to lie open to the snares of avarice, and, having found the door of covetousness, put it into his mind how he might receive the desired money, and, through occasion of gain, might become the betrayer of his master and Savior, exchanging silver for piety, and receiving the price of his crime from the Pharisees and Jews. This occasion of thought, then, gave place to Satan, so that entering into his heart, he might fill him with a most wicked will. He enters, therefore, not according to substance, but according to operation; because to enter into someone belongs to an uncreated nature, one that can be shared by many. The devil, therefore, is not participable, not being a creator, but subsisting as a creature. Whence also, being convertible and mutable, he fell from holiness and virtue.

We said above that τὸ μετοχικόν, that is, that which is taken by participation, is incorruptible and immutable, and consequently eternal. But that which can be changed has been made and has a beginning. Further, that what is incorruptible is sempiternal both retrospectively and thenceforward. Therefore the devil does not (as some think) fill anyone by participation of nature or substance, nor does he become an inhabitant thereof, but through deceit, and deception, and malice, he is believed to dwell in him whom he has filled. By this same deceit he also entered the elders who had turned themselves against Susanna in cruelty: filling their souls with the fire of lust, and the late pleasure of old age. For it is written: And there came two elders, full of wicked thought. With these same snares he filled also the whole people of the Jews, the Prophet saying of them: Woe, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a most wicked seed, wicked children.

For the devil is indeed a wicked seed, and his children, on account of iniquity and its fullness, are called sinners. But if he is not received according to participation of substance even by those who in the Scriptures are called his children—since it has often been shown that this is impossible in creatures—then no one else can receive him by participation of substance, but only by the assumption of a most fraudulent will. For we have said that operation and pursuits, not only of good works but also of evil ones, belong to creatures; but that nature and substance can enter into others only in the case of the Trinity alone.

Abundantly (as I think) has the proposed question been met. But since it seems foolish and stupid to respond against absurdities, and to wish to refute whatever comes into the mouths of the impious—for it is not so much impiety to propose wicked things, as it is impiety to wish to deal with wicked men in resisting them—therefore I pass over what they are wont to cast up, proclaiming against us with sacrilegious boldness: If the Holy Spirit is not created, then either he is brother to God the Father, or uncle to the only-begotten Jesus Christ, or he is the son of Christ, or grandson of God the Father, or he is himself the Son of God, and then the Lord Jesus Christ will no longer be the only-begotten, since he has another brother. Wretched and pitiable men, not perceiving that concerning incorporeal and invisible things it is not lawful to dispute according to the nature of corporeal and visible things.

To be a brother or an uncle, a grandson or a son, are names of bodies, and words of human weakness. But the Trinity transcends all these appellations. And whenever it falls under any of these, it does not speak its own nature by our names and unsuitable terms. Since, therefore, holy Scripture says no more concerning the Trinity, except that God is the Father of the Savior, and that the Son is begotten of the Father, we ought to understand only that which is written. And it having been shown that the Holy Spirit is uncreated, we should consequently understand that he whose substance is not created is rightly joined with the Father and the Son.

Let these things, according to the poverty of our speech, suffice for the present, indicating my fear, in that I have dared to speak of the Holy Spirit. For whoever shall have blasphemed against Him: not only in this age, but also in the age to come, it shall not be forgiven him, nor shall any mercy or pardon be reserved for him who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and done injury to the Spirit of His grace, in whom he was sanctified. This indeed is also to be understood concerning God the Father. For he who shall have blasphemed against Him, and acted impiously, shall be tormented without pardon, with no one interceding with the Lord on his behalf, as it is written, But if a man sin against the Lord God, who shall pray for him? And likewise he who shall have denied the Son before men shall be denied by Him before the Father and His angels.

Therefore, since no pardon is granted to those who blaspheme against the Trinity, it must be provided for with all diligence and caution, lest even in a brief and small discourse discoursing about it, we should slip. Rather, if anyone should wish to read this volume, we ask that he cleanse himself from every evil work and from the worst thoughts: so that, with enlightened heart, he may be able to understand the things that are said, and, being full of holiness and wisdom, may pardon us wherever the effect has not fulfilled our intention, and may consider only with what mind a thing was said, not in what words it was expressed. For just as we boldly claim for ourselves, according to our own conscience, the sense of piety, so, as far as concerns speaking about Him, we simply confess that rhetorical elegance and eloquence, according to the sequence and texture of the discourse, are far removed from us.

For it has been our study, in discoursing on the Holy Scriptures, to understand piously the things that are written, and not to be ignorant of the inexperience and measure of our own speech.