AGAINST EUNOMIUS BOOK III. CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT
A Bas. Having at length become satiated with the blasphemies against the Only-Begotten, he has passed on to the Holy Spirit, in following out his entire intention and discussing this subject as well, he writes as follows:
EUN. Since, however, these things are sufficient for us concerning the Only-Begotten, it would be consistent that we should now speak also concerning the Paraclete, not following the unexamined opinions of the multitude, but keeping in all things the teaching of the holy ones, from whom, having learned that He is third in dignity and order, we believe that He is also third in nature.
BAS. That he does not think one ought to remain in the simple and unadorned faith of the multitude, but rather, by means of certain technical and sophistic arguments, to twist the truth back to what seems right to himself, he has shown sufficiently from the words he has put forth. For, while despising the opinion of the multitude, by which they glorify the Holy Spirit, he pretends to keep the teaching of the holy ones, yet he remains silent about those who handed it on to him, doing even now the very things which it was shown he had done while he was discoursing on the Only-Begotten. Furthermore, he says that he has learned from the holy ones that He is third in order and dignity, but that he himself believes that He is also B third in nature. But who those holy ones are, and in what writings they have set forth this teaching, he is unable to say. Has there ever been such a bold man, one who introduces innovations concerning divine dogmas? For what need is there, if He is third in dignity and in order
A of the Spirit, to say that He is also third in nature? For the word of piety perhaps transmits that He is second to the Son in dignity, since He has His existence from Him, and receives from Him, and announces to us, and in general is suspended from that cause; but that He should be used as third in nature, we have been taught neither by the Holy Scriptures, nor can it be inferred from what has been said before B by any consequence. For just as the Son is indeed second in order to the Father, because He is from Him; and second in dignity, because He is the principle and cause, in that He is His Father, and because through Him is the access and bringing near to God and the Father; but is no longer second in nature, because the divinity in both is one: so clearly the Holy Spirit also, even if He has ranked below the Son both in order and in dignity (so that we may even grant this altogether), it is no longer reasonable that He should be considered of an alien nature, as is evident from the following. For all angels, just as they have one designation, so do they also possess in every way the same nature as one another; but nevertheless, some of them are set over nations, while others are present with each of the faithful. Yet by how much a whole nation is more precious than a single man, by so much is it necessary that the dignity of the angel presiding over a nation be greater than that of the one entrusted with the protection of each single individual. But that there is an angel present with each of the faithful, like a certain tutor and shepherd directing their life, no one will contradict, mindful of the words of the Lord, who says: Do not despise one of these little ones, for their angels always behold the face of My Father who is in heaven.
A And the Psalmist says: The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear him; and: The angel who delivered me from my youth; and whatever things are of the same kind. And that there are, moreover, certain angels who are set over entire nations, Moses teaches us through the canticle, saying: When the Most High divided the nations, when He dispersed the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of His angels. And the wise Daniel, in his vision of the angel, heard him saying: The prince of the kingdom of the Persians stood against me; and behold, Michael, one of the first princes, came to help me, and I left him there with the prince of the king of the Persians. And after a little he says: And the prince of the Greeks was coming. But also, a certain commander-in-chief of the army of the Lord is spoken of, he who was manifested to Jesus the son of Nave at the Jordan. And again, certain legions of angels are mentioned, when the Lord said to the disciples: Or do you think that I cannot beseech My Father, and He will provide me here more than twelve legions of angels? He, therefore, who is the commander-in-chief of the angels ranked in the legions is clearly a prince.
2. To what end, then, does this argument lead us? That if anything is second or third in order and dignity, it also has a different nature. For just as among the angels one is a prince and another is a subject, yet all are angels by nature; and in dignity there is a difference, but in nature there is a community (for as C star differs from star in glory, yet the nature of all stars is one; and there are many mansions with the Father, that is, diversities of dignities, but the nature of those who are glorified is one): so, clearly, the Holy Spirit also, even if, as they say, He is inferior in dignity and order (for we have received Him, he says, as numbered third from the Father and the Son, since the Lord Himself in the tradition of the saving baptism has handed down the order in these words: Go, baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit); but that He is of a third nature from the Son and the Father, D [this we have never learned. For two things being mentioned, deity and creation...]
lordship and servitude, the power that sanctifies and that which is sanctified, that which possesses virtue by nature and that which achieves it through choice, in which category shall we place the Spirit? Among those who are sanctified? But He Himself is sanctification. Among those who have gained virtue through noble deeds? But He is good by nature. Among the ministering ones? But there are other ministering spirits that are sent forth for service. It is not lawful, therefore, for us to call Him our fellow servant, nor to number Him with the creatures, He who is numbered alongside the divine and blessed Trinity.B For Principalities and Powers and every such creature, which possess sanctification through attention and diligence, cannot rightly be called holy by nature. For they desire the good in such a way that they receive the measure of holiness in proportion to their love for God. And just as iron, placed in the midst of fire, does not cease to be iron, but being ignited by the most intense communion with the fire, takes into itself the whole nature of the fire and passes over into the fire both in color and in efficacy: so also the holy powers, through their communion with Him who is holy by nature, possess a holiness that has already pervaded their entire substance and has coalesced within it. However, they differ from the Holy Spirit in this, that for Him holiness is nature, whereas for them holiness exists by participation. C Those in whom the good is imported and granted from elsewhere are of a mutable nature. For Lucifer, who rises in the morning, would not have fallen, nor would he have been crushed upon the earth, if his nature had not been capable of receiving the worse condition. How then is it pious to rank the Spirit among the creatures, He who is separated from the creatures by such an interval? For the creature is so constituted that if it makes some progress and is pleasing to God, it receives sanctification as a reward, inasmuch as it uses free will and can incline in either direction, toward the choice of good or evil; but the Holy Spirit is the fountain of sanctification. And just as the Father is holy by nature, and the Son is holy by nature, so also the Spirit of truth is holy by nature; and on this account, He has been granted the name of "holy," and that in a D peculiar and proper sense.
3. If, therefore, holiness is His nature, just as it is for the Father and the Son, how is He of a third and alien nature
A For this reason, I suppose, it is written that the Seraphim cry out "holy" three times, because the holiness that is by nature is discerned in three hypostases. Nor is this name of holiness common to Him alone with the Father and the Son, but so also is the very title of "Spirit." For God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. And the prophet says: "Christ the Lord is a Spirit before our face, of whom we said: In the shadow of his wings we shall live." B And the Apostle transfers the title of "Spirit" to the Lord, saying: "Now the Lord is the Spirit." From these things it is clear to everyone that the communion of names indicates not an alienation of nature, but a conjunction with the Father and the Son. And God is called good, and is good; and the Holy Spirit is also good, possessing goodness not as something superadded, but as something innate to Him by nature. Otherwise, it would be the height of absurdity for anyone to say that He who is holy by nature does not possess goodness by nature, but that it is something consequential and coming to Him from without. Furthermore, when the Lord said: "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Paraclete," He shows that He Himself is our Paraclete. Wherefore, the title of "Paraclete" also contributes not a little to the demonstration of the majesty of the Holy Spirit.
4. C Now, names such as these indicate the majesty of the nature; but what of the operations of the Holy Spirit? "By the word of the Lord," he says, "the heavens were established, and all the power of them by the Spirit of his mouth." As, therefore, God the Word is the creator of the heavens, so also the Holy Spirit imparts a stable and firm virtue to the heavenly powers. And again, Job says: "The Spirit of the Lord, who made me"; speaking, I suppose, not of the creation, but of the perfection of human virtue. And Isaiah, speaking in the person of the Lord, according to His humanity of course, says: "The Lord has sent me, and his Spirit." And again, the psalm, declaring that the power of the Spirit has permeated all things, says: "Where shall I go from thy Spirit, and where shall I flee from thy face?" D And what and how great are the benefits that come to us from Him? Just as the Lord Himself gave to those who received Him the power to become children of God, so also the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of adoption; and just as the Lord
A our God is the true teacher, according to what was said: "But do not you be called teacher on earth; for one is your teacher, the Christ"; so also the Holy Spirit is witnessed to by the Lord Himself as teaching all those who have believed in the name of the Lord, when He said: "But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send, He will teach you all things." And just as the Father is said to distribute the operations to those worthy of receiving the operations, and the Son is said to distribute the ministries to those in the dignities of ministry; so the Holy Spirit is witnessed to as distributing the gifts to those worthy of the reception of the gifts. For there are "distributions of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are distributions of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are distributions of operations, but the same God who works all in all." Do you see how here also the operation of the Holy Spirit is joined to the operation of the Father and the Son? B Next, from what follows, the divinity of the nature of the Holy Spirit is further declared. For what does he say? "But all these the one and the same Spirit works, distributing privately to each as He wills." He ascribes to Him nothing other than power joined to authority and dominion. Wherefore in the New Testament the prophets have cried out: "Thus says the Holy Spirit." Whence, however, does the searching of the depths of God come to the Spirit? "As," he says, "no one of men knows the things of a man except the spirit of a man that is in him; so also the things of God no one has known except the Spirit of God." For just as no stranger or foreigner can look into the internal thoughts of the soul, so evidently, if the Spirit shares anything of the mysteries with God, C as being neither a stranger nor a foreigner to Him, He is able to search out the depths of the judgments of God. Furthermore, life also is supplied to us from God through Christ in the Holy Spirit. For God gives life, as Paul says: "I charge you before God, who gives life to all things." But Christ bestows life: "My sheep," He says, "hear My voice, and I give eternal life to them." We are likewise given life through the Spirit, as Paul says: "He who raised D
Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit dwelling in you."
5. But this man, who is bold in all things, and fears not the danger which hangs over those who dare to utter any blasphemous word against the Holy Spirit, declares Him to be devoid of deity, writing thus concerning the Spirit:
EUN. B "Third in order and nature, produced by the command of the Father and the operation of the Son, honored in the third place, as the first and greatest of all things, and the only such work of the Only-Begotten, lacking in deity and the power of creating."
BAS. He who says this seems not even to believe that the deity dwells in us, though John says concerning God: "By this we know that He is in us, by the Spirit which He has given us"; and the Apostle: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?" and again: "In whom all the building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." If, therefore, God is said to dwell in us through the Spirit, is it not manifest impiety to call the Spirit Himself devoid of the deity? And if we call those who are perfect in virtue gods, and perfection is through the Spirit, how can He who makes others gods be Himself destitute of deity? Nor would it be pious to say that the deity, as in men, so also in the Spirit, is honored as something acquired by participation, and not as belonging to Him by nature. For he who is made a god by grace is of a mutable nature, which sometimes, through negligence, falls away from goodness. This, however, clearly fights against the tradition of the saving baptism. "Go," He says, "baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." For C baptism is the seal of the faith, and faith is the assent to the deity. For one must believe first, then be sealed by baptism. Now our baptism is according to the tradition of the Lord, into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; no creature, nor any servant, is joined to the Father and the Son, since the deity is completed in the Trinity. For everything outside of these is a fellow-servant, even if some things happen to be preferred to others by reason of an excess of honors.
6. And do not again object to me those clever words:
EUN. If it is not a creature, then it is a generation, or
A unbegotten. But there is one God without beginning, and unbegotten. Nor is it a generation. It remains, therefore, that it must be called a creature and a work. For it is one. B
Bas. For my part, if I judged that all things could be comprehended by our knowledge, I might perhaps be ashamed to confess my ignorance. But now, countless things—not only those which are stored up for us in the age to come, nor those which are now in the heavens—are hidden from us; nay, we do not even clearly and evidently comprehend those things which exist within our own body. For example, regarding sight: whether we perceive objects by receiving images of visible things, and how the image of the greatest mountains, of the immense earth, of the infinite sea, and of the heaven itself is contained in the small measure of our pupil; or whether we emit something from ourselves, and it reaches toward visible things, and thus we have perception of them—what this is, and how large it is, so that it suffices to extend over land and sea, and to penetrate the space intervening between earth and heaven, and indeed to reach the heaven itself, and move with such speed that in the same space of time both the surrounding body and the stars in the heaven are observed. And what need is there to speak of other things? Truly, the very movements of the mind—whether the soul is by nature inclined to create or to generate—who can say with certainty? What wonder, then, if we should also confess our ignorance regarding the Holy Spirit without blushing, yet still render to Him the glorification which is attributed to Him by invincible testimony? For what is handed down to us through the Scriptures sufficiently demonstrates to us that He is above creation, since it is impossible that that which sanctifies and those things which are sanctified, that which teaches and those things which are taught, that which reveals and those which stand in need of revelation, should be of the same nature. But no one is so utterly C bereft of reason as to dare to call any other than the God of all things "unbegotten," nor even the Son, because there is only one Only-Begotten. How, then, must he be called? The Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of truth, who is sent by God, and is supplied through the Son: not a servant, but holy, good, sovereign; a life-giving Spirit, a Spirit of adoption, knowing all the things of God. Thus, indeed, in the Trinity, the doctrine of the unity will be preserved, if we confess one Father, and one Son, and one Holy Spirit.
7. Now they bring forward arguments by which they demonstrate that the Holy Spirit has been called a creature: one, indeed, from the prophet D who says: *Who strengthens the thunder, and creates the spirit* (Amos iv, 13); and another from the Gospel, that *All things through him*...
came to be (John i, 3). But we are persuaded that the prophetic word refers not to the Holy Spirit, but to this common breath, the spirit of the air. And this is evident from the text. For it did not say, “Who created the spirit,” but, *Who creates the spirit*. For just as thunder is not something that was created once and for all in a certain bodily substance, but is of such a nature that it is always being activated according to the will of God for the fearing of men, and is accustomed to come into being and to dissipate, so too with the spirit: sometimes it happens like a river of flowing air, and again it ceases when that which was previously moved stays still, according to the will of him who manages all things for the salvation and preservation of the whole. Thus, through the entire creation—through thunders, and winds, and the rest of the works—the Creator is heralded. B Wherefore, after saying, *Who strengthens the thunder, and creates the spirit*, he says: *And who announces to men his Christ* (Amos iv, 13). For just as the heavens declare the glory of God to those capable of inferring the Creator’s skill from them, so too do the roar of thunder and the movements of the winds proclaim their Creator. Perhaps this might also be a prophecy referring to the incarnation of the Lord: when the voice that came from heaven seemed to those who heard it to be thunder, which God and Father sent forth in order to announce Christ to men through it; and the spirits that were stirred up, and which troubled the sea, and then calmed at the Lord’s command—these also manifestly announced his Christ to men.
But the statement, *All things through him came to be* (John i, 3), in no way demonstrates for us that the Holy Spirit is created, as if the Spirit were numbered among all things. For if the Holy Spirit is one and alone, how can he who is of a unique nature be comprehended together with all things? And let no one imagine that the denial that the Spirit is a creature constitutes the abolition of his hypostasis. For it is the part of a pious mind to treat with reverence those things concerning the Holy Spirit which are passed over in silence in the holy Scriptures, and to believe that his acquaintance and precise comprehension are reserved for us for the age to come, when, having passed beyond the task of seeing the truth through a mirror and in a riddle (1 Cor. xiii, 12), we shall be deemed worthy of that contemplation which is face to face. C D