to the A God. Thus, if He has granted Himself to anyone to be participated in and to be an indwelling guest, He absolutely makes that person wise through Himself, and in this again He fulfills the operation of the supreme nature. Therefore, to Moses, the interpreter of sacred mysteries, God Almighty said: "Who has given a mouth to man? And who has made the deaf and the hearing, the seeing and the blind? Is it not I, the Lord God?" And again elsewhere, through one of the prophets, regarding the flock of the Jews: "For in other tongues and with other lips I will speak to this people, and not even so will they believe." And in the Acts B of the holy apostles, the matter is performed by the power of the Spirit: "And they began," it says, "to speak in other tongues, just as the Spirit was giving them the power to utter." And since Christ again tells His own disciples that they would be led before leaders and kings, but that they ought not fear them at all: "For do not be anxious," He says, "what you should say or what you should speak. For I will give you a tongue by the power and nature of the Holy Spirit," the sacred Scriptures say that the promise was fulfilled for the saints. For Christ Himself used to say: "It is not you who are speaking, but the Spirit of your Father who is speaking within you." How then, finally, is He created and made, and inferior to the supreme nature—He who, being wisdom, pours forth wisdom, when God is Wisdom? And how, when He knows all things and searches the depths of God, shall He be placed among those things that do not know what belongs to God, and receive from us a servile glory, when the Savior clearly says: "A servant does not know what his master is doing"? Since, therefore, the Spirit knows the things C that are in God and in the natural Lord, how is it that He is not free and above creation? And how, indeed, is He who surpasses creation not placed in the same rank and order with God the Father, by identity of substance, and likewise with the Son? Through whom and with whom, to God and the Father, be glory together with the same Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
SUMMARIES OF ARGUMENTS
DSummaries of the Arguments contained in the Dialogue on the Holy Spirit, with the addition of others.
If the ability to deify, and furthermore to bestow upon creatures a dignity greater than a creature can receive, is greater than the nature and glory of a creature, and the Spirit deifies, how shall He be created, and not rather God, inasmuch as He deifies?
If God is believed to be in us, the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, how shall He be created? For it is not possible that God, who is superior to creation, dwell in us through a creature. For just as, when God by nature dwells within us, we are not participants in a creature, but in Deity; so, if a creature dwells within us, we are not participants in Deity, but in a creature. Therefore the Spirit is God, if indeed God, who is God by nature and in truth, is in us through Him.
A If everything that is called from non-existence into being is a slave of the Creator and possesses the measure of a servant, while we who have become participants of the Holy Spirit are free, then the Spirit is certainly free by nature. And if this is the case, He is neither created nor under the yoke, as is the creature, but is rather of a nature beyond the yoke and is instead free.
If the Holy Spirit works the divine gifts in us as He wills (for this is what the blessed Paul said), and it is God who works all things in all, then the Spirit is also God, and is God by nature, derived from God.
The blessed David sings to the Savior and God of all regarding things that lie upon the earth: "You will send forth your Spirit, and they will be created; and you will renew the face of the earth." That which is renewed is renewed in such a way that it is as it was in the beginning; and it would be the work of the same power both to bring into existence in the beginning, and to renew again to its original state that which had been corrupted. The Spirit renews the creature, in the same way that He Himself created it in the beginning. How then is He still a creature and made? For the creature is not made or renewed after suffering corruption through a creature, but through the God who is such by nature. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is God and is God by nature, derived from God.
B If all the power of created things is in the Spirit of the mouth of God, as David sings, but the Spirit is a creature, let those who think so say by whom He Himself is supported. And if the Spirit, being of created nature, strengthens the creature, then the creature strengthens itself, having no need of God in any way. But it is entirely absurd to think or say this. For we are strengthened by God through the Spirit, and the voice of the Psalmist is true, that "By the Spirit of the mouth of God is all the power of created things." Therefore, the Spirit is God by nature, derived from God, entirely and in every way different in nature from the creature that is supported by Him. And whatever is altogether above the creature and different in nature from created things is certainly God, and nothing else.
C God makes us wise, and indeed also powerful, through the Son in the Holy Spirit; for He is called the Spirit of wisdom and power. How then can the Spirit be a creature? If this were true, nothing, it seems, would prevent us from thinking that God is wise and powerful in a creature, and that He has His own wisdom as a thing made. The creature, therefore, would adorn Him, and not He the creature. But to think or say this is impious. Therefore, the Spirit is God and is God by nature, derived from God, through whom He makes the creature wise and powerful.
The blessed Paul said concerning the Son: "The Lord is the Spirit." And the Son Himself also said: "God is Spirit." Since, therefore, the Holy Spirit sometimes signifies the Father, and sometimes also the Son, how is He not consubstantial with them? For God is not recognized in a creature, just as a creature is not in the nature of Deity.
If we cannot participate in God otherwise than through the Holy Spirit, how will He be considered alien to the Deity, who makes those in whom He dwells participants of God through Himself?
To call the creature, or one of those things that have been made, equal in power and strength to God is to give the highest proof of impiety. Since the Holy Spirit has the same operation as the Father and the Son, it is evident that He is God and is God by nature, derived from God, inasmuch as He is able to work the things of God. Proof of the things said is found in what is clearly stated by the voice of Paul: "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are diversities of ministrations, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but the same God, who works all things in all." And while the Spirit is life-giving...
A, the Father is likewise, and in like manner the Son; the Holy Spirit is also life-giving. The blessed Paul writes indeed: “I charge thee before God who gives life to all things.” And the Son said: “My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life.” That the Spirit also gives life, the Savior himself teaches in these words: “The flesh profits nothing, it is the Spirit that gives life; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Blessed Paul also writes: “He who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, through his Spirit that dwells in you.” He, therefore, who is able to work equally with God, is God, and from God by nature.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, rebuking the crowds of the Jews, said: “Many good works have I shown you from my Father; for which of these works do you stone me?” Again: “The Father who dwells in me, he does the works.” Moreover, he confessed that he casts out demons by the Spirit of God. Since, therefore, he says the works of the Spirit are the works of the Father, and obviously his own as well, how could the Spirit be created? For if this were true, the Father B is glorified through a creature, and likewise the Son, if he wrought divine signs through the Spirit. But this is absurd; the Spirit, therefore, is God and from God by nature, as fulfilling the works of the Father and the Son.
Blessed Paul, showing that the New Testament in Christ is more excellent than the worship according to the Law, said: “For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, the ministration of righteousness much more exceeds in glory.” The law, indeed, was the ministration of condemnation, but the preaching of the Gospel is the ministration of righteousness. But the ministers of the Old Testament, which condemned, used to say: “Thus says the Lord.” And those of the New, which justifies, used to say: “Thus says the Holy Spirit.” Are, then, the ministers of the condemning Testament better than the second? For those were served by the words of God, but these, if the Holy Spirit is created, by the words of a creature. How then does the ministration of righteousness C excel in glory? For what is more noble or more excellent: to be served by the words of God, or by those of a creature? But the former are neither better nor more noble than the latter. Therefore, when they say, “Thus says the Holy Spirit,” they also are served by the words of God, because his Spirit is God and from God by nature. And that the ministration of the second is more glorious than the first, the Savior himself will confirm, saying to the holy apostles: “Amen, amen, I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. But blessed are your eyes; for you have become the stewards of mysteries, into which angels desire to look.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ said to the holy disciples: “Do not think how or what you shall speak, when some call you before governors or councils; for it shall be given to you in that same hour what you shall speak (namely, the mouth and wisdom); for it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you.” Furthermore, blessed Paul says: “Do you seek proof of Christ who speaks in me?” When, therefore, it is Christ who speaks in the saints D, and the Spirit who is the one speaking, how could he be created, and not rather be God, and from God by nature, as consubstantial with the Son, through whom he is also in us, and speaks?
Blessed Moses said in the book concerning the creation of the world: “And God made man, he made him after the image of God.” And he said somewhere also...
the Creator of all things through the voice of Isaiah: “I made the earth, and man upon it.” And if this be true, the blessed Job is found saying: “The divine Spirit is that which has made me.” But if the Holy Spirit is created, then he was made through a creature. And then how does Sacred Scripture say again: “And God took dust from the earth, and fashioned man”? A If, therefore, it is of the most absurd things to attribute the glory of the Creator to any of the things that have been made, while the Spirit is a Creator, then He is God and from God by nature.
If the lesser is blessed by the greater, according to the word of the blessed Paul, and the intellectual creation is blessed, being sanctified by God through the Spirit, then it is blessed and sanctified as by one who is somehow greater than all things by nature. But if this is the truth, then the Holy Spirit is not created. For that which is greater is no longer blessed by the lesser.
If created things are conceived of in place and circumscription, but the Holy Spirit is not so, it is written, for: “The Spirit of the Lord has filled the world.” And David also sings: “Where shall I go from your Spirit, and from your presence where shall I flee?” How could that which fills all things be created? B And this would only befit the divine and supreme nature. For it is written also concerning the Son: “He who descended is the same as he who ascended above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.” And indeed, the Father himself said to the Jews: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is the footstool of my feet. What house will you build for me, says the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest?” And again: “Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.” And what did God say to those of Israel redeemed from Babylon? “And I am with you, says the Lord, and my Spirit has stood in your midst,” that is: In you is the God who is God by nature and in truth. How could He be conceived as created, and not rather as God and from God by nature, since He fulfills the presence of God through Himself?
It is written that “by the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the Spirit of his mouth.” C But that the strengthening of the creature should befit God, and not a creature, how is it possible to doubt? But if, being created, the Spirit strengthens the creature, the creature holds itself toward the good, having received nothing for this from God; or rather, if one must say something even jarring, the creature is found to be a boast of the supreme nature, if it operates through itself and is admired for this reason. But this is absurd; rather, the Spirit strengthens the heavens and gives power to the creation; therefore, He is of the nature that is above the creation, that is, God.
If the Spirit gives life, and is life, according to the word of the Savior, how could He be created? For that which does not exist at some time is no longer life. For if He too was created with the others, He was brought from non-being into being. D But this is absurd; but He is life in truth and is life-giving. Therefore, He was not made, but existed eternally, as being from God by nature, and God.
Simple and incomposite is the divine and immortal nature, and it brings all things into being and perfects them through the Spirit. But if the Holy Spirit is created, as those of the opposite opinion say, the works of the Godhead are perfected in a creature. But while God is simple by nature, how could His Spirit be conceived as composite? For nothing among created things is simple by nature.
Yes, say those who disparage the glory of the Spirit, the Spirit receives sanctification from God.
A That which is given and comes from elsewhere and from another is entirely and altogether both separable and possible to be removed; and that which we do not possess by nature, we can also lose. Will the Holy Spirit, then, ever be destitute of the power to sanctify? And yet, the name bears the signification of His substance—the substance in which He is also believed to exist—and not of an office or of a preeminence, as is the case, for example, with "Authority," "Throne," and "Dominion." For such names as these are not indicative of the substance of the things signified, but rather signify the measure of each one's honor. But in the case of the Holy Trinity, the name "Father," and "Son," and furthermore also "Holy Spirit," does not declare a certain preeminence, but rather demonstrates what each of the named things is. If we say that the name of the Spirit—that is, B of that which He is by nature—is indicative of His substance (for He is named "Holy," and God is holy—for so the powers above hymn Him, not as having an adventitious sanctification, but rather as being holy from Himself and essentially), then the Spirit will not be alien to His substance; for He is holy by nature, as being from the Holy and in the Holy by nature, God.
Those who say that the Holy Spirit is created and generated do not understand—for they are blind—that every ministerial service is lesser than the operation that is wrought, so to speak, by the very hands of God. For example, the law was given to those of old, having been spoken through angels and the mediator, the all-wise Moses. But He who of old spoke the law, He Himself wrought for us the grace through faith. Hence the ministry through Christ is also C more glorious than that of Moses. If, therefore, the Spirit performs the sanctification in us in a ministerial way, who has been sanctified more greatly by the Father? For He does not sanctify in any other way than through the Holy Spirit, and the highest peak of divine blessing is the sanctification that is through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Spirit does not provide the sanctification to the creature in a ministerial way, nor as something given by another, but as God Himself working this into us, as through His own Spirit.
Christ said somewhere: "If anyone hears me, I and the Father will come, and we will make our abode with him, and we will dwell in him." But in what way this very thing that was promised is performed in us, the word of the God-inspired Scriptures will clearly teach. For the blessed John says: "By this we know that He is in us, because D He has given us of His Spirit." But the most wise Paul says: "Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?" How then is the Spirit still created, if we become partakers of the Father and of the Son through Him? For we would not become partakers of the divine nature through a creature, one of the number of holy angels; but this is not true. Therefore, God is in us through God the Spirit.
The God-inspired Scripture says that the Holy Spirit was present with Samson while he was unshorn; then it says again, "The Lord departed from him," when he had cut his hair badly. How then is the Spirit created, if He is Lord by nature? For among created things there is not truly any freedom or lordship.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, about to return to the heavens, was consoling the holy apostles, saying: "I will not leave you orphans; I am coming to you." And He has fulfilled the promise, sending to us from heaven the Paraclete.
A or rather, having come into us through Him. How, then, is the Spirit created, through whom the uncreated nature of the Word who creates all things is in us?
They act most irreverently who dare either to think or to say that the Holy Spirit is created and generated. For just as a man’s spirit is not something other than the man himself, so His Spirit is not something other than the nature of the true and natural God, even if It is conceived of as existing in Its own subsistence, as, indeed, are the Father Himself and the Son. For that the Son is in us by reason of the identity of essence, seeing that the Spirit is in us, and that the Spirit is by nature His own, the divine Paul will attest, writing: "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness" (Rom. viii, 8-10). Understand, therefore, how, while calling It the Spirit of God, he also names It Christ by reason of the identity of essence. When, therefore, Christ is in us, how could His Spirit be created, since the Son is God by nature and consubstantial with the Father? B
The blessed Paul, discoursing on those who prophesy in the Spirit in the churches, says that the observers will then be edified if they prophesy in order and by turns, proclaiming that God is truly in you (1 Cor. xiv, 25-26). But he also said concerning those speaking in a tongue that they do not speak to men, but to God: "For they speak mysteries in the Spirit" (1 Cor. xiv, 2). Behold, he clearly says that those who prophesy in the Spirit have God in themselves, and those who speak in a tongue speak to God: "For they speak mysteries in the Spirit." The Holy Spirit, therefore, is God.
Everything that is created and made is altogether inferior in divine excellence and falls far short of the highest glory. For a slave will never possess the same dignity as his master, nor the work the same as the one who made it. Accordingly, God of all justifies those who sin, inasmuch as He has the power to forgive sins; yet the Holy Spirit also justifies with equal rank. For Paul writes: "And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. vi, 11). If, then, He justifies in equal rank with God who is such by nature, how will He not also be consubstantial with Him? For a creature cannot justify us. C
That which has the same operation with God and the Father is surely also consubstantial with Him. Therefore, since God and the Father is vivifying, the Holy Spirit is vivifying in the same equal way, or rather, the Father is vivifying in the Holy Spirit. And Paul, writing to his genuine disciple Timothy, will testify: "I charge you," he says, "before God who gives life to all things, and before the Lord Jesus Christ, to keep the commandment without spot" (1 Tim. vi, 13). And in another place: "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you" (Rom. viii, 11). Therefore, God and the Father does indeed give life to the dead, but, as I have said, He gives life through His own Spirit. How then is He created? For the Father is not vivifying in a creature, but in the consubstantial and uncreated Holy Spirit. D
God said somewhere to the hierophant Moses: "Who has given a mouth to man, and who made the deaf and the mute, the seeing and the blind? Is it not I, the Lord God? And now go, and I will open your mouth" (Exod. iv, 11-12). And further, our Lord Jesus Christ also promised to the holy apostles, if they were to be brought before the princes...
A that He would give them a mouth and a tongue. But it is written in the Acts: "And there appeared to them cloven tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they began to speak in various tongues, as the Holy Spirit gave them to speak" (Acts ii, 3-4). Behold, then, as God gives a mouth to man, the Holy Spirit similarly gives it. But since He has the same operation, power, and authority as God by nature, how will He not be His own substantially, and not a creature or a thing made?
If one nature of the Godhead is worshipped in the holy and consubstantial Trinity, how shall the Holy Spirit be a generated thing? For there will no longer be a Trinity, or the fullness of the Godhead will limp in some way, if the Holy Spirit is numbered among the creatures, although the blessed Paul necessarily numbers the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son. For he writes to some: "The grace of the Lord Jesus, and the charity of God, and the communication of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (II Cor. xiii, 13). For he was not praying that the faithful should become partakers of a creature, but rather that they should be sanctified in the participation of the Divine nature. B This is fulfilled through the spiritual communication with the Spirit, through whom we are made partakers of the Divine nature.
The blessed prophet Isaiah says: "I saw," he says, "the Lord Sabaoth sitting upon a throne high and elevated, with the Seraphim standing around Him, of course, and singing hymns to Him" (Isa. vi, 1). He adds also: "And I heard Him saying: Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people? And I said: Behold me, send me. And He said: Go, and say to this people: You shall hear with the hearing, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive" (Isa. vi, 8-9). But the blessed Paul says that this utterance was made by the Holy Spirit. For it is written thus in the Acts, concerning him and the Jews: "And when they did not agree among themselves, they departed, Paul speaking one word: That the Holy Spirit well spoke by Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying: Go to this people, and say to them: You shall hear with the hearing, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive" (Acts xxviii, 25-26). C But how, when the Lord of hosts is speaking, is it the Spirit who is speaking, if He is a creature? But this is not true; rather, as the Spirit of the Lord Sabaoth, and His own by nature, He speaks what is His.
When God says: "Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord" (Jerem. xxiii, 24), and so the blessed Paul writes concerning the Son: "He that descended is the same also that ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things" (Ephes. iv, 10), it is the Spirit who fills all things. For it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world" (Sap. i, 7). Therefore, the Holy Spirit is not alien to God and Father by nature, nor indeed to the Son, but passing through from the Father through the Son into the creature, because He is also above the creature. For the creature is a participant, not of itself, but of Him who is above it by nature, that is, of God, through the Spirit.
The blessed Isaiah said somewhere concerning the Israelites: D "The Spirit descended from the Lord, and led them; you led your people, to make yourself a name of glory" (Isa. lxiii, 14). And the divine Moses in Deuteronomy again says: "The Lord alone led them, and there was no alien god with them" (Deut. xxxii, 12). Behold, then, clearly the Holy Spirit is called both Lord and God not alien. But if He is created, and alien to the divine and supreme nature, and not endowed with the glory of true dominion, then certainly He will also be an alien god. But this is impious to say or think. For He is called Lord and God not alien. Therefore, He is God and from God by nature.
That the Spirit is both Lord and God, we shall no less understand from those things also which are written in the Canticle of Moses.
For he says: A “Memor esto, ne obliviscaris ea quibus exacerbasti Dominum Deum tuum in deserto” (Deut. IX, 7). And the blessed Isaias says: “Not an ambassador, he says, nor an angel, but the Lord himself saved them, and took them up, and lifted them up all the days of the age. But they were disobedient, and provoked the Holy Spirit, and he was turned to them for bitterness” (Isa. LXIII, 9, 10). Behold again, the all-wise Moses says: “You have provoked the Lord your God.” The prophet Isaias says that the Holy Spirit was provoked. For the Spirit of the Lord—that is, the Holy Spirit—is not something foreign to the Lord and to God by nature.
Those who possess the right faith say that the Holy Spirit is divine. For it is written: “Divine is the Spirit that made me.” But those whose minds are perverted, and who say that He is a created being, swimming about in manifold arguments, say: “True, the Spirit is called divine, but not as existing in truth from God and being God, but just as a man might be called divine.” To such things we say this: The blessed Paul called the God of all “divine.” For when speaking to the Athenians, he said: “Being therefore the offspring of God, we ought not to imagine the divine to be like unto gold or silver, or graven by the art and device of man” (Acts XVII, 29). By “the divine,” he meant God. B And furthermore, he writes to the Romans concerning God: “For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, his eternal power also and divinity” (Rom. I, 20). Empty, therefore, are the things which the adversaries bring forward when they say that the Holy Spirit is called divine, just as if one of us were called a divine man.
Our Lord Jesus Christ says: “If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth in me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John VII, 37, 38). Then the blessed evangelist John adds: “And this he said of the Spirit, which they should receive who believed in him” (John VII, 39). Therefore, according to the Savior’s voice, the Spirit is living water. We find, moreover, through the voice of Jeremias, the God of all saying: “The heaven is astonished at this, and is very much afraid, saith the Lord, for my people have done two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jer. II, 12, 13). C Since, therefore, the God of all names Himself the fountain of living water, and the Holy Spirit is living water, how is He not God by nature, He who possesses the same life-giving power as He?
The blessed Paul writes: “Do you seek a proof of Christ who speaketh in me?” (II Cor. XIII, 3). And to the holy apostles, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself says: “For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you” (Matt. X, 20). Since, therefore, the Spirit speaks when Christ speaks, how could the Spirit that is proper to the Word who created all things be a created being? “For all things were made by him: and without him was made nothing” (John I, 3). But He who made all things is surely also other than all things by nature, and is in the preeminence of divinity which is above all creation.
That the Holy Spirit is God and from God by nature, the blessed Peter will teach, saying: D “Ananias, why hath Satan tempted thy heart, that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Ghost, and by fraud keep part of the price of the land? You have not lied to men, but to God” (Acts V, 3, 4). Therefore, if he who lies to the Holy Spirit lies to God, how is the Spirit not God by nature?
The blessed Paul, calling himself a servant of Jesus Christ and a called apostle, says that he was set apart for the Gospel of God (Rom. I, 1). Then again, signifying the same thing in another way, he writes to some as if concerning God:
A “Who also made us sufficient to be ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit.” If, then, he knows the New Testament to be the Gospel of God, for which he says he was also set apart, how is the Holy Spirit not God?
He writes again: “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he might instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ,” 672 speaking of the Spirit who dwells in us. Since, therefore, he is called the mind of Christ, how could he be of the things that were created, when it is impossible for the divine and incorruptible nature to have anything from outside substantially in itself?
Writing to the Galatians, Paul says: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” And if Christ is formed in us, by the power of the Spirit remaking us through all virtue into his own likeness and rendering us spiritual, God, therefore, is the Spirit of Christ, who is formed in us as he himself is.
B Someone approaches in the Gospels and says to our Lord Jesus Christ: “Good Master.” To this Christ answered: “Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is, God.” Since Christ therefore asserts that one is truly and substantially good, the Psalmist says somewhere: “Your good Spirit shall lead me in the right way.” If, then, while one is good, the Spirit is good, it is evident that he is of the divine nature, of which “good” is truly predicated.
Paul, defining the laws concerning women, says: “A wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives. But if her husband be dead, she is free to be married to whom she will, only in the Lord. But she is happier if she so remains, according to my judgment. I think also that I have the Spirit of God.” What do we gather from this? If it belongs only to God to establish laws, and Paul establishes laws as one who has the Spirit of God, then the Spirit in him is God, who also moves him to establish laws.
In the Gospels the Savior says somewhere concerning himself: “I am the truth.” But the blessed John, showing that the Spirit is from the substance of the Father and the Son, says in the Gospels: C “The Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father.” And in the Epistle: “The Spirit is truth.” How then could he who proceeds from the Father and is the Spirit of truth, and has such likeness to the Son because of the identity of substance that he himself is also called truth, be created and made? But this is absurd. Therefore the Spirit is God, since he is truly truth and proceeds from the Father.
The Mosaic law brings inevitable punishment upon those who blaspheme the God of all. And indeed, God commands the son of an Egyptian woman to be stoned to death by the whole assembly in the desert 673 because he had named the name, as it is written, and had dared to say something forbidden. D Nevertheless, our Lord Jesus Christ himself, preserving the same honor for the divine nature, affirms that it will be forgiven to one who has spoken against the Son of man, but that it will not be forgiven to him who has blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, neither in this age nor in the age to come. But if the Holy Spirit were a creature, and not existing of the divine substance, being glorified with the Father and the Son, how does the blasphemy against him have so great a punishment, as much as is decreed against those who blaspheme against God? But it is clear that the Spirit is God, and from God, and in God, who is honored as God in the divine Scriptures, and exists as such by nature.
If, as the Savior says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” and such a one is not of
blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of a woman, but is born of God, then the Spirit is God by nature, for He regenerates the saints into unity with God by dwelling in them and making them partakers of His own nature. A
That which is holy by participation, existing as it were as a receptacle of a holiness conferred upon it, must consist first of all in its own nature—just as man, for example, or an angel, or any other rational nature. Let those, therefore, who dare to say that the Spirit is holy by participation in the God and Father, and not by nature, tell us what He is in Himself and properly. But we have heard nothing else in the divine Scriptures. He is not, therefore, holy by participation or by composition, but is a sanctifying substance and nature, and, so to speak, a quality of the Godhead of the God and Father, just as the sweetness of honey is, or fragrance from a flower.
Paul, writing to the Romans concerning our Savior Christ, says, “Who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” If, then, by being raised from the dead and by the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, Christ untied the bonds of death, and is declared and understood to be the true Son of God, the Spirit—through whom the demonstration of divine power occurs—cannot be a creature or a work. Otherwise, Christ would appear, in a certain sense, to be aided by a creature, rather than using a power that is his own, through the consubstantial Spirit. B
“For the creation,” he says, “was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it in hope.” If, therefore, they say that the Holy Spirit is created and made, they must necessarily admit that He Himself is also subject to vanity, and groans and travails with us, and is now in slavery, to be liberated only at the redemption of the glory of the children of God. But where then will Paul stand, who says: “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” If the Holy Spirit is a slave, as being made or created, how do we cry in Him, “Abba! Father”? But He delivers those in whom He resides from slavery, and rather reforms them into free sonship, showing them to be partakers of His own nature. He is not, therefore, a slave. If this is so, He is no creature. And to have escaped both the condition of being a creature and of being ranked among slaves, He must surely belong to the divine essence. C
Regarding the accomplishments done through him by our Savior for the benefit of the Gentiles, Paul boasts, saying: “I have reason to be proud in Christ Jesus in my labors for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Holy Spirit.” If, then, Christ performs signs and wonders through Paul by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is, as it were, a natural and living activity, and, if we may say so, a quality of the Godhead of the Son. If this is so, how can He be a work, who is in God and of God by nature? And how, on the other hand, can the active power of the Son be a work? To say this is nothing less than complete impiety.
Teaching that the message of salvation does not need the cleverness of human arguments, Paul writes to the Corinthians: “And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” Behold, he shows that the demonstration of the Spirit—that is, the workings performed through the Spirit—is the power of God. For the Spirit is from Him and in Him by nature, working all things. D
A How then is that in which God, who is such by nature, is known, as far as it is accessible to us, as in a mirror and in a riddle, a creature or a work? «Do you not know,» he says, «that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?» Since, therefore, when the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we are called the house and temple of God, how will He not be of the divine nature, but be numbered among created things? For it is also manifest that no created or made thing is said to dwell in a temple as God does, but this, too, is unique to the divine nature alone among all other things.
«I will therefore most gladly boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.» But if it is the Spirit who dwells and resides in us, and through Him Christ, then the Holy Spirit is the power of Christ. If this is so, how will that which is by nature present in the Son be a work? For it is time to say that the Word of God, who possesses no duality, is composite, being composed of a created and of His own nature. But if this is absurd, the Spirit is not created or made, but is from the incomprehensible and divine substance as its power, and as it were, its natural operation.
B Regarding our Savior Christ, Paul says: «In whom you also, having heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation—in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance.» If, when we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, we are transformed to the likeness of God, how will He be created through whom the image of the divine essence is engraved in us and the seals of the unbegotten nature remain? For the Spirit does not, in the manner of a painter, sketch the divine essence in us, being Himself other than it, nor does He bring us to the likeness of God in this way; but being Himself God, and having proceeded from God, He is impressed upon the hearts of those who receive Him like a seal upon wax, invisibly, by the communion and likeness to Himself, re-forming our nature to that exemplary beauty and showing man again [to be] in the image of God. How then will He be a work, through whom nature is transformed toward God, as having become a partaker of God?
C «Be prudent, therefore, and be watchful in prayers. But above all things have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another, without grumbling, each as he has received a gift, administering it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.» Observe for me, again, that the admirable Peter insists that the variety and gift of such grace [comes] from God, acknowledging the Holy Spirit not to be alien to the divine nature, since He distributes the divine gifts as He wills, and apportions them to each of the saints with authority. Since Peter calls the Spirit God, how will he not be impious and deranged who classes Him among created things and dares to oppose the preaching of the holy apostles with headlong recklessness?
D «Who is it that overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He who came by water and blood, and the Spirit: Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three who bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three are one. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater.» See then, again, that the herald of truth calls the Spirit God and [that He is] from God by nature. For having said that it is the Spirit who testifies, after a little [more] he adds: «testi-
testimony of God is greater.» A How then shall He be a creature, who is spoken of theologically together with the Father of all, and who is the complement of the holy Trinity?
«Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this way: When His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit.» B If the power to create resides solely in the divine nature, and this is its preeminent attribute along with other divine honors, yet the divine Spirit creates for Himself a temple in the Virgin according to the Scriptures, will not he who says that He has been made be found both impious and foolish? For he brings an accusation against the most primordial substance of all, dragging it down, as it were, and forcing it into the category of created things, which began to be recently and were not in the beginning. But in us God is not recent, according to what is written in the Psalms; therefore, He did not come into being, nor was He created, but is rather a divine and immortal nature in the beginning. But if this is so, how shall that divine and holy Spirit who is in God and the Father be considered created?
«But as many as received Him, to them He gave power to become the children of God, who were not born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.» C If it is the Spirit who through faith in Christ regenerates us unto salvation, so that because of this very thing we are counted as children of God, how shall the Spirit not be God? And that we who have believed are born of the Spirit, the Savior Himself will testify, saying to Nicodemus: «The Spirit blows where He wills, and you hear His voice, but you do not know from where He comes and where He goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.»
«But when the Paraclete comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.» If the Holy Spirit proceeds from God and the Father, and is, as it were, a vapor or quality of His substance, yet the Father is unbegotten and uncreated; how can the Spirit, who flows forth from Him, be begotten? And how are we called temples of God upon receiving the Spirit, if He is not God, according to the thoughtlessness of some?