A if the union of the apostles with the Holy Spirit diminishes the dignity of the Spirit, then the union of Moses with God also diminishes the dignity of God. What do I mean? If you do not think it is a great thing that "it seemed good to the Holy Spirit" because the apostles are associated with Him, then you will not be able to speak of faith in God either, because Moses was associated with God. For the Scripture says: "The people believed in God and in Moses." But let us also bring forward another arrow. If the glory of the apostles being joined to the Spirit destroys the dignity of the Spirit, then it insults God and diminishes His dignity that Samuel is joined to Him; for it is written: "And all the people feared the Lord and Samuel." Again, let us bring a third arrow against this impiety. It B diminishes the dignity and divine authority of the Holy Spirit to be joined with the apostles, just as it diminishes the dignity of God to have Gideon joined to His designation; for all the people shouted as they fought: "The sword for the Lord and for Gideon." Just as, therefore, Moses is joined to God, not as an equal in honor to God, but as a servant of God; and Samuel to God, not as an equal in honor, but as a prophet; and Gideon to God, not as an equal in honor, but as a commander of the war; so too are the apostles joined to the Spirit as heralds of the Gospel. Recognize, therefore, the authority, and do not insult the dignity of the Spirit; recognize the divine theology of the holy Trinity, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This is the uncreated nature, the true dignity, the undivided kingdom, the C inseparable honor, the indivisible hope, the incomprehensible glory of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, to whom pertains all glory, honor, and adoration unto the ages of ages. Amen.
CONCERNING THE HOLY AND CONSUBSTANTIAL TRINITY.
D α'. Those who whet their tongues against the holy and consubstantial Trinity, and who are rabid, and who attempt to diminish the dignity of the only-begotten Son and of the Holy Spirit, are refuted by the Holy Spirit Himself, who spoke through the holy prophets, and by the Word who preached His own incarnate presence—that which for our sake came to be from the holy Virgin, ineffable and unchangeable—through His own worthy servants; and they shall be refuted in the day of His perfect righteous judgment, when He comes again from heaven to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at in those who have preserved His faith unchangeable. But, beloved, the children of the Arians and those possessed by the madness of the Macedonians have dared to speak of God as "great" and "small," and "created God," introducing Hellenism to us. For it is the part of those people to worship a creature, and to magnify one of their gods while diminishing the other. For if something is lacking in either the Son or the Spirit, then it is not God. For Paul, rebuking them in the Epistle to the Romans, says: "They worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is God blessed over all." And if they worship a creature, calling the Son and the Spirit a creature, they are anathema according to Moses who says: "Cursed be everyone who worships a creature and a work." But we do not worship a creature, but an uncreated, unchangeable, and unalterable and consubstantial Trinity, which has nothing adventitious, nor servile, nor having come to be through progress—as if it were not previously existing and later came into being. For look at the testimonies of the holy and consubstantial Trinity for me, and worship this rightly, that you may not perish. And God said, he says: "Let us make man according to our image and likeness." Tell me then, with whom does God consult? "With the angels," he says. But the angels do not have the image of God; rather, He speaks to the co-creator Son and to the Holy Spirit. And that you may be persuaded that this is true, hear the Psalmist saying: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the spirit of his mouth all their power." And you are not ignorant that the Word is the Son. For the theologian John says: "And the Word was God." And concerning the Spirit, "God is a Spirit." God the Father says, therefore, to God the Son and to God the Holy Spirit: "Let us make man according to our image." And He did not say, "My image and yours," nor "My and thine." And the Scripture, signifying that there is one image of the holy Trinity, says: "And God made man; according to the image of God He made him." Just as also Paul cries out concerning the Son: "Who is the radiance of the glory and the stamp of His substance." And again elsewhere the Scripture says: "Come, and let us go down and let us confuse their tongues." By saying "Come," He calls those of equal honor. For if He were commanding angels, He could have said "Come," but imperatively, "Go." But look at the voice of the Father calling the Son and the Spirit. For if this were said to one only, He could have said, "Come, and let us go down and confuse their tongues." But the saying "Come" is the voice of one to two who are of equal honor. And hear also the blessed Job clearly declaring the inseparable Trinity; for he says: "The Lord lives, who has so judged me, and the Almighty who has embittered my soul, and the divine spirit that remains in my nostrils." By calling the Lord and the Almighty and the divine Spirit, he proclaimed the consubstantial Trinity. Learn also the hymn of the Seraphim, crying out a third time, "Holy, holy, holy." For they do not say "Holy" just once, nor "Holy, holy" a second time, nor a fourth, nor do they say "Holies, holies, holies," lest they lead us into polytheism by the title of many names, but one, and a third time: "Holy, holy, holy." For they declare through these one and equal glory of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And hear also the prophet saying again: "The Spirit of the Lord spoke in me, and his word was upon my tongue." It is demonstrated beforehand that the Word was God; for by calling the Spirit of the Lord both Word and Lord, he proclaims an undivided Trinity. And look also at the three children in the furnace, calling all creatures and works to the glorification of God—sun, moon, stars, heavens, angels, powers, humans, spirits, every creature visible and invisible and intellectual—and nowhere did they number the Son or the Holy Spirit among the works. But you will surely say: "They did not know the Spirit or the Son; for they were Jews." But he refutes them immediately from the Scripture itself: "For the fourth was," he says, "like the likeness of the Son of God." And concerning the Holy Spirit he says: "God raised up by the Holy Spirit a younger lad, by name Daniel." And in many other places the Holy Spirit has been preached in the Old Testament. But they knew the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit as being of one divinity and power; but they knew how to call the servants to the glorification of the divinity. But so that you may know that nothing created or adventitious comes to be in the Trinity, having placed the Father on high, Paul in another...
place sets the Holy Spirit in action; for he speaks thus: "One God the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus, by whom are all things, and we by him; and one Holy Spirit." And again: "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are diversities of administrations, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but the same God, who worketh all in all." But the same Spirit worketh all these things, distributing to each one as he wills, and not as he is commanded. And when the Son is being baptized, the Father gives testimony from heaven, and the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove upon his equal in honor. Through all these things we are taught to discern one kingdom of the undivided Trinity. And the Word of God himself, who for our sake was truly incarnate, and being about to ascend to where he was not separated from, says to his holy apostles: "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." We have been sealed, indeed, but it is one seal of the holy Trinity, one baptism. How then do you dare to alienate the Holy Spirit from the paternal essence? For if they were alien, they would not have been numbered in the baptism with the Father. For by what logic, according to your word, O adversary of God, if the Son is a created being, or the Spirit, is he included with the Father? For if the name of the Father alone could save the one being baptized, why are the creatures included with him, as though the Father were unable to save alone? Far be it! If, then, he proclaims the Father’s weakness by shunning those who are consubstantial, you shall be compelled by the truth, along with us, to confess a Trinity that is uncreated, consubstantial, and omnipotent. But you will say to me regarding the Father, that it is written: "Thee the only true God." But the Word was also God; how then is he equal to the Father? For to say regarding the Father, "Thee the only true God," proved the Son not congenital, but a God by title. What then, you who fight against your own salvation? Since B it is written, as John says regarding the Father, that "God is light," and regarding the Son, that "He was the true light," do you therefore dare to call the Father lesser because "the true light" is not added to him, but is said only regarding the Son, as "the true light"? Just as therefore you do not dare to diminish the Father because "the true" is not added, so, hearing regarding the Father "Thee the only true God," and regarding the Son "God" alone, do not dare to diminish the Son, the names being placed over against one another: to the Father, "true God," and to the Son, "God"; and conversely, "He was the true light" to the Son, and to the Father, "light" alone. As therefore it must not be dared to say regarding the Father that he is not true light, and regarding the Son that he is not true God (for he himself said, "I am the truth"), so also regarding the Holy Spirit, that he is "the Spirit of truth." Through these testimonies learn to worship an undivided Trinity. "All things that the Father has are mine," said the only-begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father. Moses says: "The 'I Am' has sent me." The "I Am" is the Father; the "I Am" is the Son; the "I Am" is the one toward the Being, begotten without beginning and without time. The Father has all things—truly life, and immortality, and light, and is omnipotent, and God, and Lord—things which the Son also has. "For I am," he says, "the truth and the life"; and, "He was the true light"; and, "The Word was God." And Thomas the apostle says: "My Lord and my God"; just as the psalmist also says: "With my hands I have sought out God, and I was not deceived." Thomas felt the Word in unbelief, and was not deceived, having confessed him Lord and God in faith. "Yes," he says, "I call the Son of God God, but not without beginning, but createdly; and therefore also a servant." And how, "who existing in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, having taken the form of a servant"? If therefore he is a servant (for every creature is a servant), how, being a servant, did he take the form of a servant? And how did he empty C himself, if he was not perfect God? For what he did not have, he took, remaining what he was; he did not become what he was, but existing in the form of God, he took the form of a servant in an immutable manner out of philanthropy. But if you do not wish to confess him without beginning, therefore there was a time when the Son was not? "Yes," he says. See then, I speak according to your word: there was a time when there was no Father; for he who does not have a son is not called a father. And the Father had a beginning of being a father; for the father is known from the son. Therefore, was there also a time for the Father when he himself was the son of another father? D Woe to such blasphemy! For while thinking to worship the Father perfectly, you act impiously toward him. If therefore the Son himself made the times and seasons (for all things were made through him), how do you dare to say that there was a time when the Son was not? Therefore, according to your word, the time of the God-Word is greater; for that which is first is by necessity also greater.
2. Do you wish to know that the Son is co-eternal with the Father? Isaiah says: "I am the first God, and I am unto things hereafter; before me there was no other God, and after me there shall be none." If then you call the Son later than the Father, how does the Father say, "After me there shall be no other God"? But if you apply this to the Son, how does he say, "Before me there was no other God"? See therefore through these things that the Son is co-eternal with the Father. And hear the testimonies regarding the Son, and flee from speaking ill of him: "The Lord rained fire from the Lord, and fire upon Sodom." He calls the Father Lord, the Son Lord, the Holy Spirit Lord; as he says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit"; and he did not say, "The Lord is lesser than the greater Lord." And Moses says, "And let all the angels of God worship him"; and an angel does not worship a creature. And so that you may learn that this was said regarding the Son, hear Paul saying: "And when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, And let all the angels of God worship him." And David also says: "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet." And he did not say, "Lord of my Lord," but he said, "The Lord to my Lord." "Behold," says Isaiah, "the virgin shall have in the womb, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel," which is interpreted: "God with us." Yes, I call him Son, but yet submissive and lesser than the Father. Isaiah again reproves you, saying that "A child has been born to us, a son was given to us; and his name is called Angel of Great Counsel, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Potentate, Prince of Peace, Father of the coming age." The prophet proclaims him Potentate, Mighty God; and do you call him submissive? He calls him Angel of Great Counsel; and do you call him small? But see for me also Jeremiah shouting regarding him: "This is our God; no other shall be reckoned against him." Does he speak regarding the Father, or regarding the Son? "Regarding the Father," he says. Was the Father incarnate, or the Son? "The Son." Therefore according to your word the Father was incarnate. But now I see, according to the prophet's word, that the Son is the one who also lived among men. Yes, the Lord is the one who was incarnate, but the Father remained without flesh. Be reproved then, O thoughtless one, that he speaks regarding the Son, through what follows: "This is our God; no other shall be reckoned against him; he found all the way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved by him; after these things he was seen upon the earth, and lived among men." Do you see him also as a lawgiver? For if he himself found all the way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant and to Israel his beloved, he is the one who also appeared to Moses and gave the law. And whence is this clear? Hear the prophet saying: "I will establish with you a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I established with your fathers, when I took hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of E-
Egypt; giving my laws into their hearts, and upon their minds I will write them; and they shall be to me a people, and I will be to them a God. Do you see that He is the lawgiver of both the Old and the New? For you cannot doubt that He Himself legislates the New. And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrath, are you not little to be among the thousands of Judah? Out of you, indeed, shall come forth to me a ruler, and his goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity; and He shall shepherd my people Israel. Do you see one people of the Father and the Son? The Son says: "I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." The Father says concerning Christ: "And He shall shepherd my people Israel." Learn the kingdom of the Father and the Son. But as for the things you hear Him say after this in humility, after He by His own good pleasure became flesh and humbled Himself for the sake of the salvation of men, understand these in a way befitting God; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. For if, to the apostles who had seen His miracles and had healed every disease in His name, He said: "I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now," what then of the Jew, who is far duller? For if, when He said, "Before Abraham existed, I am," they picked up stones to stone Him, how, if He had said any of the higher things to them, would they have endured to listen at all? So also in the Old Testament one might find many things said concerning the Father that are accommodated to the dullness of the hearers; just as: "The seven eyes of the Lord looking upon the inhabited world," and, "In the shelter of your wings you will cover me," and, "Awake! Why do you sleep, O Lord?" and, "If you do not turn, He will polish His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready; He has prepared His arrows for the burning ones." And how? For the Divine is neither winged, nor held by sleep, nor is there a sword or bow or arrows in God; for the Divine is incorporeal. But the prophet utters these threats, wishing to strike at the dullness of the hearers; so also the God Word, having become flesh for us, mimicking His own Father, speaks humbly, looking toward our salvation. Because they thought Him an opponent of God, saying, "This one is not from God," and, "For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God"; and because they sought to stone Him for this, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but that He called God his own Father, making Himself equal to God—but because they could not grasp the high things worthy of His divinity, He begins to speak humbly, showing through all things that He is not an opponent of God. "If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I am going to the Father who sent me, for my Father is greater than I." For whenever He made Himself equal to the Father, they attempted to stone Him. But if these things are not so, one would be forced to praise the Jews, that they justly crucified Him as an opponent of God; for one who makes himself equal to God and the Father, yet is not, is an opponent of God. Is Paul then a liar, saying: "He did not count it robbery to be equal to God"? What then is the Savior's meaning, when He was not yet incarnate? Thus, "I go to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God"—He is Father of Him by nature, and of us by grace and adoption; and He is Father to Him as to His own good pleasure and by the assumption of created nature, and to us as to creatures. But if you doubt these things, He could have said: "Our Father and yours." For what reason did He distinguish Himself, except to teach us this concept befitting God? Do you see, he says, how He stands in need of the help of the Father, saying, "Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour"? You read it wrongly; He said, "Now my soul is troubled," and having made a distinction there, He added, "What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this reason I have come into this hour." For by saying, "For this reason I have come into this hour," He showed that He was not shrinking from the salvific death. "With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you," He says. If it is A possible, let this cup pass from me; but not my will, but yours be done. Does He tremble at death, or come to the passion against His will? He who said, "The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected, and be buried, and on the third day rise again"; he who said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up"; he who said, "I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it again; and no one takes it from me, I lay it down of myself, and I take it again"; he who rebuked the lately-blessed Peter for the word, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," and who then counted the passion as unworthy of Him, having heard, "Get behind me, Satan; you are a stumbling block to me, because you do not think the things of God, but the things of men"; he who set his face to go up to Jerusalem, that he might grant salvation to all through his passion; he who through the prophets also proclaimed the form of his passion: through Jeremiah, "They devised an evil plan against me, saying, Come and let us throw wood into his bread, and let us destroy him from the earth," signifying the cross; and through David, "They gave gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink"; and, "They pierced my hands and my feet; they divided my garments among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots"; and through Isaiah, "I gave my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to blows, and I did not turn my face away from the shame of spitting." You know then that all these things were fulfilled on the cross. For under Pilate he was scourged, under [the soldiers] he was struck, by the lawless he was spat upon, by the soldiers he was nailed to the cross, with them dividing his garments and casting lots. He who signified the passion through many, how does he shrink back now? Why then does he say, "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me"? The devil did not know who he was; for seeing him hungering, thirsting, toiling, and his other economies, he thought him a mere man; but seeing his divine miracles, he suspected he was God; he was therefore in doubt about him, not knowing him. For if he had known precisely that he was God, he would not have dared to approach him; as also Paul says: "For if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." The Master therefore feigns cowardice, drawing him in, so that having approached as to a man, he might be overcome by him, and all the captives, as many as were held by him, might be redeemed. Just as if a king, about to engage some weak tyrant, and knowing that he will flee from him, feigns cowardice, saying to his forces, "Let us run away, as it were, from his face, so that he does not escape us, but pursue, and thus turning we may capture him"; so also the Master feigned cowardice, so that the devil might approach as to a man, and find him tearing asunder B [death] and rescuing all those held by Hades. For so he says: "An angel appeared strengthening him." He who is worshipped by angels, and to whom every knee bows, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, how was he receiving strength from an angel? Not strength, but the angel saying a doxology: "Yours is the kingdom and the power, Master." "No one knows that day or hour, not even the angels, nor the Son, except the Father." And how, he says, is he equal to the Father, the one who does not know that day? The one who made it, does he not know it? And why then does he say, "Nor the Son"? But look at the contemplation: one might find two knowledges and notions in Scripture, one according to action, the other according to acquaintance (gnosis). "For Adam knew Eve his wife," not as if he were ignorant of her before; for how could one who said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh"? And Abraham knew Sarah his wife, and Jacob
A Leah and Rachel. Did he then not know them, after having served for them for fourteen years? He knew them in terms of knowledge, but at the end also in terms of action. He, therefore, the Father, who judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, saw the day both by knowledge and by action. But the Son, having come to save the world and not to judge it, saw it by knowledge; and since he has not yet judged, he is ignorant of the day—signifying knowledge by action.
Caput III
3. But Paul says: "Consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who is faithful to him that made him." And elsewhere: "God made him Lord and Christ." And Solomon: "The Lord created me the beginning of his ways for his works." Do you see how Scripture signifies him as a creature and a work? But the context will refute you, O opponent of God; for, he says, "Every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men, in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices." For he took from us the creative flesh without sin, which he offered as a sacrifice to the Father on our behalf. Understand him, therefore, according to the flesh, as made by Him who made him, and not according to his divinity. Thus, God also made him Lord and Christ. For before the dispensation, He is proclaimed as God everywhere, as has been shown beforehand, and no one anywhere calls him a work; but because of the union of the created flesh, he says that God made him Lord and Christ, for the dullness of the hearers. "The Lord created me the beginning of his ways," he says. Do you see that he says "creature"? But let us go to the context of what follows: "Before the age he established me; before all the hills he begets me." First of all, O vainglorious one, learn that the book is called *Proverbs*; and everything that is stated in proverbs is not the same as the power of the Word. For the Lord likened the kingdom of the heavens to a net, and to leaven, and to a grain of mustard seed, and to many other such things; and we do not by any means say that the kingdom is any of these. But I will not wander from the word: "The Lord created me the beginning of his ways, before the age he established me, before all the hills he begets me." How then is what is begotten created or established? Or how is what is created begotten? For if it is created, it is not begotten; we do not create what we beget, nor do we beget what we create. And how is it possible for the uncreated Father to have begotten a created Son? For we, being created, beget created things; but the Father, being uncreated, begat an uncreated Son. Aquila, interpreting the passage, said, "He acquired me." The phrase, therefore, "He created me," fore-announces what is to come as if it were already done; for this is a custom of Scripture—just as [838] "They pierced my hands and my feet." As for me, he says, the one whom you see, who of His own good pleasure united the created flesh to Himself, I am from the beginning; I do not have my beginning from Mary. For "In the beginning was the Word," and, "Before Abraham was, I am." Acknowledge then an uncreated Son, and one co-incapable of having a beginning with the Father, so that you do not provide the Father with a beginning of being a father. If you say the Son is co-incapable of having a beginning with the Father, how did the Father beget the Son? Willing or unwilling? If we say, "Willing," they object: "See, the will was before the Word; for before he willed, he says, the Son was not." But if we say, "Unwilling," they say: "The divine is coerced; and everything that is coerced is not God." But we say that just as the sun has its rays and brilliance co-eternal with it, so the Father has the Son and the Holy Spirit; that we might not say that the Father is also under a beginning. For if he is said to be under a beginning, before the Son began, the Father was not a father, according to your argument, and you will be forced to make the Father under a beginning in an impious way; if not, I will also put this to you: Did the Father become a father willingly or unwillingly? If you say, "Willingly," see then, before he willed, he was not a Father; there was then a time when the Father was not a father. And thus he himself began to be a father. If you say, "Unwillingly," he is coerced, and God is not coerced; for that which is coerced is not God. Do you see into what impiety you fall if you do not confess the Son to be co-incapable of having a beginning and co-eternal and co-creator with the Father? And how do I say "co-creator"? For it is written that "All things were made through him." Do you not hear the prophet saying about the Son: "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise," and what follows; for "I will see the heavens, the works of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast established"? Do you not see the authority of Christ saying: "My Father works until now, and I work"; and, "As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will"; and, "Young man, I say to you, arise"; and to the unclean spirit, "I command you, be muzzled, and come out of him"; and, "Be of good courage, child, your sins are forgiven you"? B For since those men said, "No one can forgive sins but God alone," [he says], refuting them from their own mouth: "You have said that it belongs to God alone to forgive sins. Behold then, I forgive sins, and acknowledge my divinity." But if you doubt, see from the healing of the body and learn also the health of the soul. Then he says to him: "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house"; and again to another, "Stretch out your hand"; and to the sea, "Be silent, be muzzled"; "Maid, arise"; "Lazarus, come out"; "I will; be cleansed"; and all the rest, by which he reveals his equality of honor with the Father; all of which, having observed, believe that he is consubstantial with the Father, and that the Spirit also is consubstantial. For if He proceeds from the Father and takes from the Son, the Spirit is not alien to the essence of God. The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit the Comforter, the Advocate. The Spirit is God. "And the Lord is the Spirit." Just as Peter [said] to Ananias: "Why has it been agreed by you to test the Holy Spirit?" And showing that He is God, he says: "You have not lied to men, but to God." Do you see that the Spirit to whom he lied is God? And Paul says: "You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you." It is clear that the Spirit who dwells in us is God; "For in him we live and move and are"; and, "The second man is unto a life-giving Spirit"; and elsewhere he says, "The flesh profits nothing; it is the spirit that gives life."
Caput IV
4. Do not dare, then, to utter anything against the consubstantial and all-powerful Trinity. And again, "No one knows the things of a man except the spirit of a man which is in him; so also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God." Not even "the one in him," so that no one might think the Spirit is composite. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. Yes, he searches, but he does not grasp; for it is not written that he grasps. How then does he search? As a busybody? As something alien? As one ignorant? For if it is truly written, "Do not seek things deeper than yourself, and do not examine things stronger than yourself; [839] think about these things that you are commanded, for there is no need for hidden things." If it is alien according to your argument, how did he dare to search the depths of God? It is written regarding the Father: "I am God who tests the kidneys and searches the secret chambers of the belly." Does it follow then, because "I grasp" is not added, that you will say the Father is ignorant? If he searches and tests while ignorant, [will you venture] to say this also regarding the adorable Spirit? Why did he say, "Separate for me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them"? Do you see the authority? Understand the divinity. And Agabus: "Thus says the Holy Spirit: The man whose this girdle is, so they shall bind him in Jerusalem." And the apostles: "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit to lay no further burden"; and again: "Passing through Phrygia and the Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And having come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, and the Holy Spirit did not allow them." And again, that "The Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city, saying," and the rest; and the prophet: "My Spirit," he says, "stands in your midst"; and the Lord: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in their midst."
A Each one here speaks thus: "Alas for the misery! Alas for our pitiable life! See what we become." And yet, even as we speak, we still plunder, and we shout, and we bear grudges! And each one plays the philosopher, pretending he is about to renounce wickedness completely; inwardly he philosophizes with words, but outwardly he wages war against God in his deeds. Because of this, God has prepared for tombs to be set up everywhere, to remind us of our own weakness; thus, every city and every village has graves before its gates. Someone hastens to enter a royal city, one abounding in wealth and dominion and other distinctions, and before he sees what he fancies, he sees first what he becomes. Tombs before the cities, tombs before the fields; everywhere the school of our humility is set before us, and we are tutored first in what we end, and only then do we see the inner phantoms. And not only this, but often, also, when people are about to enter into a partnership of life, they are tutored in the extreme humility of nature. A man, often, when he wishes to take a wife, dictates the dowry to the notary. There is no union yet, and death is already inscribed; he has not yet enjoyed the life together and the marriage, and already death is defined; he has not yet seen his bride, and he posits votes of death both against himself and her, and writes such things as: "If the husband should die before the wife, or if the wife before the husband, this and that shall be ordained." Thus the ancient laws fixed reminders of nature everywhere for all. And it is not only regarding those who exist and are alive that the votes of death are set, but even against those not yet born. For what does it say? "And if the child to be born should die." The fruit is not yet there, and the decision has already run ahead. Then, in the documents, he recognizes nature; but if something of human affairs happens, or the little woman should die, he forgets what he wrote and utters other tragic words: "And this," he says, "was I 850 fated to suffer? Is this what I expected to undergo, and to be deprived of the marriage?" What then? Have you forgotten what you wrote? When you were outside of events, you recognized the boundaries of nature; but when you fell into the passions, did you forget the laws of nature? These things are said for the self-correction of all, so that all may bear everything that befalls them bravely, so that they might not deem the judgments of God to be a loss. Do not philosophize outside of your afflictions, but when you are within them, display greatness of soul; when you are grieved, remember the words by which you comfort the one who is grieving. What words do we use toward those who are grieved? Do we not philosophize this to them? "These are human things, these of our calamities; you did not endure the calamity alone, you did not bear the violence of death alone; these things even kings bear—rulers have often been deprived, and potentates are deprived; recognize the nature of yourself, you are a man; you share in these common laws of nature together with everyone."
C 3. These things, and more than these, you speak when you encourage another. For are you a brave teacher of others, but not even a pitiable student to yourself? It is the sign of a great and noble soul to philosophize at the height of the passions. If anyone is able, in every calamity or grief or loss, to say, "Righteous are you, O Lord, and straight are your judgments," he suffers as a man, but he is crowned as one who loves God. Life, brothers, is full of much difficulty, and it is necessary in any case for both the righteous and the unrighteous, for the pious and the impious, to be afflicted. But there is a great difference; for it is one thing to be tutored as a son, and another to be scourged as a stranger. A son is struck, and a servant is also struck; but the one is struck as a slave who has sinned, the other as a free man, and as a son who is in need of turning back; the stripes do not produce an equal status. Not if a pious man suffers what an impious man suffers does he become of equal status to the impious; rather, this discipline is reckoned to him for affliction and testing—to the impious, however, for scourging and punishment. Because he knows these difficulties, the blessed David says regarding the righteous: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous." But see what follows: "And out of them all the Lord shall deliver them." He did not yet state the affliction, and he already indicated the healing. D Regarding the contrary, [he says,] "Many are the scourges of the sinner"; and there is nothing that follows, [whereas] for the righteous: "Many are the afflictions, and out of them all the Lord shall deliver them." Hearing this, let no one despair of himself, nor say, "If, therefore, I am being scourged as a sinner without having hope, my discipline is fruitless." For the Scripture has now called him a "sinner"—not one who is entirely a stranger to piety, but one who is being afflicted, who partakes of piety but slips in human matters. For that God has mercy on sinners, all Scripture is full of the pledges of God's philanthropy. For He says: "As I live, says the Lord, I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he return and live." God swears, not because He doubts Himself, but because He is compelling our own unbelief into faith. Let every man therefore, when being tested by afflictions, say: "Righteous are you, O Lord, and straight are your judgments"; and at once he has both displayed a noble soul and has not dissolved his piety. Such was the blessed Job, who campaigned against all the passions, who defeated all the terrors of the devil, who dissolved all his madness, who by the steadfastness of his resolve broke the waves of the devil, who was deprived of everything at once and did not deny the Lord of all.
However, his campaigns will receive their own account, for truly they require a distinct time for examination, lest by a cursory mention of words we insult his wrestlings; but let us have before our eyes those things which that noble and great contestant said. For since he adds a seal to what has been said, having been stripped of everything, he did not strip himself of piety, but says: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it seemed good to the Lord, so also it came to pass." Good is this "It seemed good"; it yields to authority, it does not meddle with the administration; he did not say as we do: "Why do the young die, and the elderly remain? What kind of administration is this? An old man desires death, released as he is in his flesh, in need of money and 851 of every other comfort, and he does not obtain his desire; and a child, having lovely beauty, desired by his parents, is snatched away before his time?" Learn not to seek such things, learn to say: "Your judgments are a deep abyss," learn to say: "Righteous are you, O Lord, and straight are your judgments," learn to say: "As it seemed good to the Lord, so also it came to pass"—recognize the authority, so that you may recognize piety. But since the discourse has fallen into the glory of the Holy Spirit, let us say something also of the dogmatic points for our own safety and confirmation. For just as Job, having said, "As it seemed good to the Lord," demonstrated the authority and the lordship; so also the apostles, indicating the sovereign authority of the Holy Spirit, say: "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things." "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit." If He is subject, why did it "seem good to Him"? If the Spirit is under laws and is a servant, how did it "seem good" to one who is subjected? Do things not come to pass just as it seems good to the king, and not what appears to those who are ruled? "As it seemed good to the Lord," says Job. "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit," say the apostles. The word of authority is of equal honor, since the glory of the kingdom is undivided. But the wickedness of the heretics again finds a way to sneak in. "For," they say, "after the apostles said, 'It seemed good to the Holy Spirit,' and added, 'and to us,' do the apostles therefore possess the authority of deity because of this?" Let these things be studied, so that they may not cast their own [poison] of disobedience into untrained souls, so that they may not pour heretical impiety into the ears of the simple. For such are the things they often boastfully proclaim: "Let nothing," he says, "brother, strike you as strange in what has been said." As a brother he calls, and as an enemy he destroys. "Do not marvel," he says, "if the apostles said regarding the Holy Spirit, 'It seemed good to the Holy Spirit'; but look also at what follows: 'It seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us'—it seemed good to the apostles. Are the apostles therefore gods? Do they possess the authority of God?" When the heretic says these things, let us bring forward the arrows from the Holy Scripture: "For the arrows of the mighty are sharpened, sent into the heart of the enemies of the king." What, then, is there to say to him? "If the..."