you shall hear his voice, do not harden your hearts," etc. At the end also of the Acts of the Apostles, [arguing] with the Jews, he says: "Well did the Holy Spirit speak through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying: You will hear with your hearing, and will not understand." For Paul, who wrote these things concerning Him, did not have a different Holy Spirit than the one who was in the prophets before the advent of the Lord; but [he spoke] of Him of whom he himself was a partaker, and all who were carried along by the virtue perfected in faith. Whence also, when he mentions Him with the article, as testifying that He is solitary and one, he says not simply *Pneuma hagion*, that is, "Holy Spirit," but with the addition of the article, *to Pneuma to hagion* A (7); that is, "this Holy Spirit." And he commemorates that Isaiah prophesied with an articulated voice, *dia tou pneumatos tou hagiou* (8), that is, "through this Holy Spirit," and not simply *Pneuma hagion*. Peter also, in that discourse in which he was persuading those present, says: "It was necessary [al. It behooves] that the Scripture be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit (that is, *to Pneuma to hagion*) spoke through the mouth of David concerning Judas" B; showing that he himself, the same Spirit, worked both in the prophets and in the apostles.
4. We shall treat of this more fully in what follows, when we begin to say that not only the Lord [al. God] the Word was made known to the prophets, but also the Holy Spirit; because He is possessed inseparably with the only-begotten Son of God. The very voice [al. The very voice therefore] of the Holy Spirit is not a hollow appellation, but a demonstration of the underlying essence: joined to the Father and the Son, and utterly alien from creatures. For since C creatures are divided into visible and invisible things—that is, into bodily and incorporeal things—the Holy Spirit is not of bodily substances, [He being] the dweller of soul and sense, the effector of speech, wisdom, and knowledge: nor is He of invisible creatures. For all these are capable of wisdom and other virtues, and of sanctification. But this substance, of which we now speak, is the effectrix of wisdom, knowledge, and sanctification. For there cannot be found in the Holy Spirit any strength, or operation of sanctification and virtue (9), which He sustains from some outsider: because every nature of this kind is mutable. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit, by the confession of all, is immutable, the sanctifier D of divine knowledge, and the attributor of all goods, and, to speak briefly, He himself subsisting in those goods which are lavished by the Lord. For Matthew and Luke, describing the same place in the Gospel, one of them says: "How much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those that ask him" A? The other, however: "How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask him"? From which it appears that the Holy Spirit is the fullness of the gifts [al. goods] of God; and that those things which are administered divinely do not subsist without Him; because all utilities, which are received from the grace of the gifts of God, flow from this fountain. But that which is substantially good cannot be capable of an alien goodness, since it itself bestows goodness upon others. Therefore it is manifest that the Holy Spirit is alien not only from bodily, but also from incorporeal B creatures; because other substances receive this substance of sanctification; but He himself is not only not capable of the sanctification of another, but is moreover its attributor and creator. Finally, those who enjoy His communion are said to be partakers of the Holy Spirit, sanctified indeed by Him. For it is clearly written (10): "And doing despite unto the Spirit of grace," there is no doubt that this is he who has sinned after the reception of Him. But if he is sanctified through the communion of the Holy Spirit, it is shown that he himself has been a partaker of Him, and the Holy Spirit is the bestower of this sanctification. The Apostle also, writing to the Corinthians, and enumerating those who are to inherit the kingdom C of heaven, adds, saying: "And such indeed you were; but you have been washed, but you have been sanctified, but you have been justified, in the name of Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God"; asserting that the Spirit of God is none other than the Holy Spirit. For in what follows he confirms the same, saying: "No man speaking in the Spirit of God calls Jesus anathema: and no man can say Lord Jesus, except in the Holy Spirit," confirming that the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit.
5. Therefore He is the sanctifier [al. sanctification], not of changeable, but is shown to be of immutable substance. But that D the substance of God alone, and of his only-begotten Son, is immutable, the divine oracles most clearly teach: preaching that every substance of creatures is convertible and mutable. Therefore, since the substance of the Holy Spirit is shown to be not convertible, but inconvertible: He will not be a creature *homoousion* [leg. *homoousios*]. For created things would also be immutable if He were placed with the Father and the Son, having the same inconvertibility. For everything that is capable of an alien good is separated from this substance. Such indeed are all creatures; but God, since He is good, is the fountain and principle of goods: He therefore makes those good to whom He imparts Himself, being good Himself not made by another, but subsisting: therefore capable (11).
A and not incapable. The Only-Begotten Son, who is His wisdom and sanctification, does not become wise, but makes others wise; and He is not sanctified, but He sanctifies. Whence He also is capable, and not incapable. Since, therefore, an invisible creature—which it is customary to call a rational and incorporeal substance—is not incapable, but capable (for if it were incapable, it would be capable of no good), being simple in itself and subsisting, and a recipient of another's good; it has good by participation, and should be understood not to have it from those things that are held by others, but from those things which others hold, having it more from the Father and the Son than those who possess it; but as for the creature, possessing and not being possessed, let us also discuss the Holy Spirit (12), [and] if indeed He also is holy by participation in another's holiness, let Him be numbered with the other creatures. But if He makes those who are capable of Him holy, let Him be placed with the Father and the Son. That the Holy Spirit is taken by others, and does not take things, we have expressed both now and in our volume on the Sects (as far as we were able) (13): and it is very easy to confirm our discourse from all Scripture. The blessed Apostle also, writing to the Ephesians, says: "In whom you also, when you had believed, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance" (Eph. 1, 13). For if certain ones are sealed by the Holy Spirit, assuming His form and appearance, the Holy Spirit is of those things which are had, and do not have: those who have Him being impressed with His seal. Writing the same to the Corinthians [Ephesians], he says: "Do not," he says, "grieve the Holy Spirit, in whom you were sealed" (Eph. 4, 30), testifying that those who had received the communion of the Holy Spirit were sealed. For in what way he who receives the seal and figure of discipline and virtue (if I may so say) receives into his own sense the knowledge which he has received: so also he who is made a participant of the Holy Spirit, through His communion becomes both spiritual and holy (14).
A Jesus filled the preachers of His doctrine with the Spirit; and breathing upon their faces, B "Receive," He said, "the Holy Spirit" (John 20, 22), and, "Going, teach all nations" (Matt. 28, 19), as if He were sending them all to all nations. For not all the apostles went forth to all nations equally, but some were dispersed into Asia, some into Scythia, and others into other nations; according to the dispensation of the Holy Spirit whom they had with them, just as the Lord also saying, "I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world" (Matt. 28, 20). To this also corresponds that word: "You shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you; and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the end of the earth" (Acts 1, 8). If, therefore, these were established in the extremities of the earth by the testimony of the Lord, and were distant from one another by the longest intervals, yet the indwelling Holy Spirit was present to them, having an uncircumscribed substance, the angelic virtue is shown (15) to be entirely alien from this. For an angel who was present, for example, to an apostle praying in Asia, could not at the same time be present to others established in other parts of the world. But the Holy Spirit is present not only to men separated from Him, but He stays as an indweller with each and every angel, principality, throne, and dominion; and as He is the sanctifier of men, He is of a different nature than men are; so also, sanctifying other creatures, He is other than their substance, since every creature is not made holy from its own substance, but from the communion of another's holiness.
7. The holy angels are indeed called such in the Gospel, the Savior saying that the Son of Man is to come in His majesty and that of the Father and the holy angels (Luke 9, 26). And Cornelius in the Acts of the Apostles is written to have received a response from a holy angel (Acts 10, 22), that he should call Peter, the disciple of Christ, to himself. But holy angels are so by participation in the Holy Spirit, and by the indwelling [alt. communion] of the Only-Begotten Son of God, who is holiness, and the communion of the Father (16). Of whom the Savior says: "Holy Father" (John 17, 11). If, therefore, angels are not holy from their own substance, but from participation in the holy Trinity.
A it is shown that their substance is from the Trinity. For as the Father who sanctifies is one thing, and they who are sanctified are another; and the Son is one thing, and they whom he makes holy another: so the Holy Spirit is of a different substance from those who are sanctified by the gift of sanctification. But if heretics propose that angels are holy by the nature of their own condition, they are consequently compelled to say that they are *homoousios*—of the same substance—with the Trinity, and that they are immutably holy by substance. If, however, they avoid this and say that they are indeed of one nature with other creatures, but do not possess the same holiness that humans possess: it will of necessity be deduced (17) that they must say that human beings are of a much better substance, since they possess holiness through communion with the Trinity, whereas angels B are holy by their own nature and are alien to it. But the prayers of perfect men, and of those coming to the consummation of holiness, are to be made equal to the angels (18). Angels, indeed, bring aid to men, and not men to angels, ministering salvation to them and announcing to them the more abundant benefits of God (19). From which it is clearly shown that angels are more honorable and much better than men, through a closer—if I may say so—and fuller assumption of the Trinity.
8. Wherefore, seeing that the Holy Spirit is distinct from those things which he himself sanctifies, he is not of one nature with the rest of the creatures that receive him. If, however, he is of a different nature from the creatures and subsists in his own essence, he is shown to be uncreated and unproduced. There are many Scriptures that unambiguously convince us that he is of a nature different from all created conditions. C Some are also said to be full of the Holy Spirit; but no one—neither in the Scriptures nor in common parlance—is said to be full of a creature. For neither does Scripture claim this for itself, nor does common speech, that you should say someone is full of an angel, or a throne, or a dominion; for this language is suitable only to the divine nature. We do, however, say that some are full of virtue and discipline: as in that passage, "He was filled with the Holy Spirit" (Exod. XXXI, 3); signifying nothing else but that they are full of consummate and perfect virtue. It is written concerning John: "And he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb" (Luc. I, 15); and again: "Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit" (ibid. 41); and after other things: "And Zacharias his father was filled with the Holy Spirit" (ibid. 67). D There is no doubt that John also prophesied. Likewise, in the Acts of the Apostles, concerning many believers who had gathered together, it is reported: "They were filled with the Holy Spirit" (Act. II, 4). Since, however, the Holy Spirit is participable, similar to wisdom and discipline, he does not possess substance in empty names; but he subsists as good through the nature that sanctifies and fills all things with good things, according to which some are also said to be filled with the Holy Spirit, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles: "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness" (Act. IV, 31). For just as one who is full of some discipline, who possesses it perfectly, can speak about it learnedly and subtly: so those who have received the Holy Spirit consummately, so that they are filled with him, speak the word of God with boldness, because the present Holy Spirit ministers a voice worthy of God. Hence some say with a haughty air: "Thus says the Holy Spirit" (Act. XXI, 11); and the Apostle: "But be filled," he says, "with the Holy Spirit" (Ephes. V, 18); and in many places in the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples of the Lord are written to have been full of the Holy Spirit: "Look therefore, brethren, for seven men among you, having a good testimony, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom" (Act. VI, 3); and concerning Stephen: "But when he was full of the Holy Spirit, looking up to heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God" (Act. VII, 55); and concerning the vessel of election it is said: "But Saul, who also is Paul, being full of the Holy Spirit, looking at him, said" (Act. XIII, 9); and in common it is noted concerning all believers: "The disciples also were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit" (Act. XIII, 52). But the presence of angels, or of any other excellent nature that was made, does not fill the mind and the sense; because it too is filled from elsewhere. For just as one who receives from the fullness of the Savior becomes full of wisdom, and virtue (20), and justice, and the word of God: so he who is full of the Holy Spirit is immediately filled with all the gifts of God—with wisdom, knowledge, faith, and the other virtues. He who therefore fills all creatures, which yet are able (21) to receive virtue and wisdom, is not of those things which he himself fills. From which it is gathered that he is of a different substance than are all creatures. We have said also elsewhere, that in the substance of the Holy Spirit there is to be understood also the fullness of divine gifts.
9. Finally, it is impossible for anyone to obtain the grace of God if he does not have the Holy Spirit: in whom we prove (22) that all the gifts of God consist. That, however, he who has him has also perfectly attained the word of wisdom and the remaining good things: both now the discourse demonstrates clearly, and we said a little before, that the Holy Spirit is the substance of the good things of God; when we placed the example, "The Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him" (Luc. XI, 13); and "The Father will give...
A to those who ask." Nor must we imagine the Holy Spirit to be divided according to substances [al. substance], because a multitude of good things is mentioned: for He is impassible, and indivisible, and immutable; but according to different faculties and intellects, He is called by many names of good things; because He does not bestow His communion upon those who partake of Him according to one and the same virtue, inasmuch as He is suited to the utility of each, and He fills with good things those whom He judges ought to have Him present. Finally, Stephen, that first witness of the truth, and worthy of his name (23), is said to have been full of wisdom and of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, consequently, surpassing intellect, with the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, as the Scripture speaks: "And the apostles chose Stephen, full of faith and the Holy Spirit; and: Stephen however, full of grace and power, was performing miracles (24) and great signs among the people." And further concerning the same: "And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit who was speaking in him." For the blessed man, having become full of the Holy Spirit, was also a partaker of the faith which comes from the Holy Spirit, according to that, "To another, faith, in the same Spirit." And having grace and virtue according to the same Spirit, he was performing great signs and miracles among the people. Moreover, he abounded with those gifts according to the same Spirit, which are called the graces of healings and virtues. And these are indeed ranked in the enumeration of the gifts of God, which are placed by the Spirit, and according to the Spirit, in the first Epistle of the apostle Paul to the Corinthians. B To such a degree, however, did Stephen abound in divine grace that none of those contradicting, and of those who were disputing against him, could resist the wisdom and the Spirit who was speaking in him. For he was wise by the Holy Spirit (25). Whence also Jesus clearly proclaims to his disciples: "When you have been brought to principalities, and powers, and councils, and synagogues, be not anxious as to what you must say, or what you speak in that hour. For there shall be given to you from the Holy Spirit words of wisdom, which those who are even vehemently skilled in disputes cannot contradict."
10. But let us set forth the testimony itself, which is woven thus: "When, however, they have brought you into synagogues to principalities and powers, be not anxious as to how or what you should answer, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that same hour what you ought to say." And in another Gospel: "Place therefore in your hearts not to premeditate how you should answer: for I shall indeed give to you a mouth and wisdom, which those who are C defending themselves against those who were contradicting the Gospel cannot contradict." It is clearly shown that the word of wisdom and knowledge is super-intelligibly understood in His substance. How, however, the Savior grants to the disciples in that hour a mouth and wisdom, which they cannot contradict—not even those who are thought to be most eloquent among men—is not the time to discuss, because we now propose to show that the gifts of the virtues are always super-intelligibly understood in the Holy Spirit; so that he who has Him is held to be full of the gifts of God. Whence also in Isaiah, God himself says to someone: "I will place my Spirit upon your seed, and my blessings upon your children." For no one ever receives the spiritual blessings of God, unless the Holy Spirit has preceded. For he who has received the Holy Spirit will consequently have the blessings, that is, wisdom, and intellect, and the rest, of which the Apostle writes thus: "For this cause we also, from the day we heard, do not cease praying for you, and begging, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding: walking worthily before God." For he says that those who walk worthily for Him [al. for good things] through works, and words, and prudence, are filled with the will of God, who places the Holy Spirit upon them, so that they may be filled with wisdom and intellect, and the remaining spiritual goods; wisdom, however, and intellect, which are in the Holy Spirit, are given by God (26). "The Lord," he says, "will give wisdom; and from his face proceeds wisdom and intellect"; whereas the wisdom which comes from men is not spiritual, but carnal and human. Of this, therefore, the Apostle writes: "Not in carnal wisdom, but in the grace of God have we conversed in [al. in this] world"; calling carnal wisdom that which consists in corporeal things from human thought (27). Furthermore, spiritual and intellectual wisdom, holding itself concerning invisible and intellectual things, through the operation of the Holy Spirit, bestows its presence upon those who receive it. In many other places also, the Apostle mentions that the gifts of God dwell [al. are commemorated] in the substance of the Holy Spirit; just as in that: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, and the power of the Holy Spirit."
11. But God, the giver of good things, will return [al. returns] what He promised in the power of the Holy Spirit to those who have Him; He fills with joy and peace those who possess an undisturbed and calm thought, and who have joyful minds, and tranquil from every tempest of perturbations. Whoever, however, in the power of the Holy Spirit D shall have been...
initiated, and also follows the right faith in the mystery of the Trinity, they shall attain it. In another place of the same Epistle: "The kingdom of God," he says, "is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." A For by asserting that righteousness in the Holy Spirit—that is, every virtue—and the peace of which we spoke above, are joined to the joy of God, he proves most manifest to those who could hear him that these goods are nothing other than the substance of the Holy Spirit. Since, therefore, these goods come to men from the largesse of the Holy Spirit, the calling of the Gentiles which He introduced through evangelical doctrine is rendered acceptable and sanctified in the Holy Spirit; because the Holy Spirit, who makes those sanctified and acceptable in Him, is the substance of the goods of God. And he who is full of Him does all things according to reason, teaching rightly, living irreproachably, and truly and perfectly demonstrating signs and wonders. For the Holy Spirit possesses that treasure which excels for him, and [is] the cause of the fullness of all goods. B Peter, the disciple of the Lord Jesus, knew that the largesse of the Holy Spirit is the nature of the gifts of God. For he says to those who rebuked his entry to Cornelius: "If, therefore, God gave them the equal gift, bestowing the Holy Spirit, as he did to us in the beginning, who was I that I could withstand the Lord?" And furthermore to his own: "God, the knower of hearts," he says, "bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as He did to us: and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith." In this sense, it also agrees with that which is said in many places, that the Holy Spirit is given by the Lord: "Jacob my servant, I will receive him; Israel my elect, my soul shall receive him; I have given my spirit in him"; and further: "Who gives breath to a people settled upon it [the earth]," there is no doubt but that it means the earth, "and spirit to those who tread upon it." We have shown above, however, that the Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit are not different. Paul also says: "The charity of God is diffused in your hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us"; and that: "How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" C But this Spirit is also said to be poured out by God upon all flesh, that they might prophesy and see visions, who have received Him, according to Joel, who speaks in the person of God: "I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." For the effusion of the Spirit exists as the cause of prophesying and of seeing the sense and beauty of the truth. The name of effusion itself also proves the uncreated substance of the Holy Spirit. For God does not, when He sends an angel or another creature, say: "I will pour out of my angel," or dominion, or throne, or lordship. For this term is consistent only with those things which are participated in by others: just as now, and a little before, we spoke of the charity of God, which is diffused in the hearts of those who have received the Holy Spirit. "The charity of God," he says, "is diffused in your hearts, through the Holy Spirit, who is given to you." D The Savior also, because He Himself is capable, is said to be poured out in the likeness of ointment: "Your name is as ointment poured out." For just as ointment that is contained in a vessel indeed has the substance of fragrance, but is prevented from spreading further because it is shut up inside the vessel, but when the vessel has been poured out outside it sends its fragrance far away: so the fragrant name of Christ, before His advent, dwelled only in the people of Israel, as if included in a Judean vessel: "For God is known," he says, "in Judea, His name is great in Israel." But when the Savior, shining in His flesh, extended His name into the whole earth, or rather into every creature, when that which is written is fulfilled: "How admirable is Your name in the whole earth!" to which the Apostle follows by saying: "For there is no other name given under heaven, in which we ought to be saved"; and the Psalmist speaks to the Lord: "You have magnified Your holy name above all": then it was fulfilled, "Your name is as ointment poured out." The word of effusion signifies, however, the large and rich abundance of the gift.
12. Therefore, when one or two receive the Holy Spirit, it is not said, "I will pour out of my spirit": but [only] when the gift of the Holy Spirit has overflowed to all nations. And to Titus, the Apostle commemorates the salvation made for the Gentiles: "Not by the works of justice which we have done, but by the laver of the second regeneration, and renovation of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us abundantly." And here, too, the word of effusion shows the large bestowal of the Spirit. From all of which we are taught that the substance of the Holy Spirit is capable, and from this, [it is] uncreated. He calls "capable" the substance which is received by many, and distributes the communion of itself to them; but it is "capable" in the sense that it is filled by the communication of another's substance: and it is receiving another, and it itself is not received by another. For to that which is capable is immediately consequent that which is unchangeable, and to that which is unchangeable, eternity; just as, on the contrary, to that which receives a changeable thing, the changeable and the created are consequent. Therefore, nothing of the creatures is unchangeable.
A Not only, therefore, is what is rational in humans subject to change and created, but this same capacity for change is also found in all creatures. For the divine scriptures demonstrate both the changes and the falls of the angels. For although the multitude of angels and of other excellent powers persevere in blessedness and holiness, yet because they have been brought about in a nature that shares that [same capacity for change], it is clearly shown that they remain in their first state not by the immutability of their substance, but by a more diligent service in the Lord. For the nature of co-equals cannot be diverse. For since the entire human race is mortal, and individual men are mortal, so that conversely, if any of the higher [beings] are immortal, there is no doubt that all, being established in the same genus and species, are immortal.
B 13. But since these things are so, if even one angel should appear mutable, all will be mutable, even if they have not been changed by persevering in blessedness; just as all the bodies of men are divisible, although not all are divided. For some of them, having suffered division, interpret the nature of the rest that are similar to them. With these things thus discussed, the Holy Spirit is shown to be of a different substance from the visible and invisible creatures. But if this is true, some most impiously count the Holy Spirit among all things, saying that in the statement that all things were made by God through the Word, the making of the Holy Spirit is also signified. For the Holy Spirit is proven to be not one of all things, but something else outside of all things in substance from both. For if a creature, as we showed above, is divided into corporeal and incorporeal, and the Holy Spirit is created, then he will be either a visible or an invisible creature, that is, corporeal or incorporeal. But he will by no means be a body, as we said before, since he teaches, and grants knowledge, and is grasped by the sense and the soul. Nor will he be an invisible creature, as we have argued a little earlier about him. Hence, the Apostle also, in the Epistle which he wrote to the Hebrews, shows that he is other than all the angels, saying: "To which of the angels did He say at any time: Sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool of your feet? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent for C service, for the sake of those who were to receive salvation?" And after other things: "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Which, having received its beginning to be spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard, God bearing witness with signs and wonders and various virtues, and with the distributions of the Holy Spirit according to his will." For this expression "to which of the angels" is taken equally as if he said: to none through an angelic name signifying the substance of all invisible creatures. For God did not say to any of the angels, nor to any other rational creature: "Sit on my right hand." Therefore, the discourse declares in common that it was not said to any creature: "Sit on my right hand." And this is said in common about the creature. And pronouncing upon all invisible creatures, he says they are ministering spirits. For this reason he added: "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent for service?" For although not all individual invisible creatures have been sent, yet because others of the same genus and honor have been sent, in a certain way they themselves are sent by possibility: being partners and of equal substance with those sent. How, therefore, is the Lord, through whom that great salvation received its beginning to be spoken, other than all creatures—the salvation of which the Apostle, not wanting us to be neglectful, says: "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which, having received its beginning to be spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard," but [he shows] also that God who bears witness with signs and wonders to this salvation is other than all ministering spirits: so too the Holy Spirit, to whose distributions according to his will God bears witness, distributing him, not by parts of a cutting, but by the communion which he has decreed to grant them, is himself also of a different substance from those into which he is poured out as distributed.
14. Therefore, since we have approved according to the sense of the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit is something other than every creature, in vain, nay rather impiously, do some, wishing to show that he is created, use the testimony in which all things are referred to as having been made through the Word; so that, forsooth, even his eternal substance might be contained among all things. And because they use the prophetic discourse to approve his creation, with God saying: "Creating a spirit," we must also show them in this to be utterly alien from the understanding of the truth. For the discourse of the prophet was not proposed concerning the Holy Spirit, as is understood from the very series D and context of the eloquence. Inasmuch as the prophet Amos, from the person of God, says: "Prepare to call upon your God, O Israel: for I am he who establishes the thunder, and creates the spirit, and announces his Christ to men: making the dawn and the mist, and ascending above the high places of the earth: the Lord God Almighty is his name." For God, who had spoken beforehand that he would create a spirit and make it: also said he establishes the thunder and makes the dawn and the mists. If, therefore, we persevere in the aforementioned narration, that is, in the thunder and the dawn and the clouds, we ought to hold the same order of narration also regarding the spirit, so that what is said by God is such as this: That you may call upon me, who am God, who provide for all things, who also am the creator of all,
A that I may establish the roaring of thunder, and that I may establish the spirit, and that I may make the dawn and the mist for certain benefits to men; prepare yourself to call upon me, O Israel; so that when you have been prepared to call upon me, and have prayed to me, who establish the aforementioned things, you may enjoy the happiness of the seasons and the distribution of other good things, as I serve you everything year by year according to the order of nature, so that the year flows with abundance, so that the moments of the hours run by in their own time, so that the thunders roar in their own time, and a healthful breeze breathes with auspicious winds. But if, by way of allegory, the thunder, and the dawn, and the mist, and the creation of the spirit are understood, they will signify not the substance of the thing, but a figurative interpretation.
15. But if anyone should oppose this, suggesting that it is said of the Holy Spirit, because it refers to the creation of the Spirit, by the that which follows: “And announcing toward all men his Christ,” while in the Hebrew it is held: “He announces to man his speech”; that is to say, that he who is the Creator of all, he himself also inspires the prophets, and through them declares his will to men. And to this it must be answered, that certain heretics, while inventing another Father of the Savior outside the Creator, most impiously preaching this—not foreseeing their own wicked suspicion being struck down by God, saying: “I, forming [Vat. establishing] the thunder, and creating the spirit, and making and governing other parts of the world, announce my Christ to men.” For this is the work of my providence above all my works, that I may subsist as the cause not only of those things which are outside, but also of those which pertain to the benefit [al. humility] and utility of the soul and mind. I consider this which is said, “I create the spirit,” to be posited just as if it were said, “creating wind.” For God conducts these breaths, which are produced through the motion of the air, by his own disposition, according to that which we read elsewhere: “Who brings the winds out of his treasuries.” B It is good, however, that in the very sentence he does not say: “who have created,” but “who create the spirit.” For if the discourse were about the substantiality of the Holy Spirit, he would have said, at any rate, “who have created.” For he does not always create the same thing. Now, however, it is said in sequence regarding the breath, “I create,” because they are not made once, but in the fact that they subsist, they come to be daily. For not without reason, without the article, which in the Greek language is the significator of singularity, is the spirit now called created, since he is not holy, whereas almost always the Holy Spirit is named with the article, as in that: *αὐτὸ τὸ Πνεῦμα*, that is, “the Spirit itself bears witness to our spirit”; and elsewhere: *Αὐτός ἐστιν τὸ ζωοποιοῦν*, that is, “He himself is the one who gives life.” And again: “So also the things of God, no one knows except *τὸ Πνεῦμα*,” that is, “the Spirit of God: *τὸ γὰρ Πνεῦμα*,” this is, “For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” And many things which it is possible to excerpt from the Holy Scriptures. But if anywhere he is rarely named without the article as the Holy Spirit, it must be known that he is named with an adjunct signifying his magnificence. For it is sometimes said even without the article, when it is not he himself in himself, but his participation that is shown: as, for example, “The spirit of Elijah”; and, “Walk by the spirit,” and whatever things are similar to these.
16. Since, therefore, from these things which I have recorded, and from many others, it has been demonstrated that the Holy Spirit is not a creature, and is nowhere numbered among conditional things, but is always placed with the Father and the Son: now let us see what indifference [al. difference] he has with both. At the end of the second Epistle which Paul writes to the Corinthians, he says: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be always with you all.” C For from the present discourse is shown the one assumption of the Trinity: since he who has received the grace of Christ, has it as much through the administration of the Father, as through the largesse of the Holy Spirit. For it is given by God the Father and [al. by the Lord] Jesus Christ, according to that: “Grace to you, and peace from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ,” with the Father not giving one grace and the Savior another. Since he describes [Vat. writes] that it is given by both the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, made complete by the communion of the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit himself is also called grace, according to that: “And doing injury to the spirit of grace, in which he was sanctified.” D
God also promises to pour out grace—that is, he will most abundantly bestow the spirit of grace and mercy upon Jerusalem. For when anyone receives the grace of the Holy Spirit, he will have it given by God the Father and by our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, one grace, completed by the operation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, demonstrates the Trinity to be of one substance. In another place A also: “The charity,” he says, “of God be with you all,” which is both bestowed and confirmed by the Trinity. For the Savior says: “He who hears my words and keeps them, this is he who loves me. But he who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him.” For there is not one love of the Savior toward those who are loved, and another love of the Father. For God loves for salvation, because “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that everyone who believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” B Likewise, the Son, who is Life, in order to bestow life and salvation, loves those whom he wills to become better. Hence, he says that he who is loved by the Father is loved by him. And concerning him, it is placed in the prophet: “And he himself shall save them, because he has loved them.”
17. The Apostle attests to this love, just as he does to joy and peace, which is ministered by the Father and the Son, saying: “But the fruit of the spirit is joy, peace, charity.” Which charity is poured out in the hearts of believers through the Holy Spirit. “For the charity,” he says, “of God is poured out in your [others say: our] hearts by the Holy Spirit.” For everyone who communicates with the Holy Spirit communicates through participation in him, according to that: C “And may the communion of the Holy Spirit be always with you all.” And in another place: “If there is any communion of the Spirit.” When he has the wisdom of God and the word, and in all things the truth, he will also have a fellowship of holiness in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. “But God is faithful, by whom you were called into the communion of his Son.” John also writes concerning the Father: “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have communion with him.” And further: “And our communion is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.” Therefore, whoever communicates with the Holy Spirit immediately communicates with the Father and the Son. And he who has the charity of the Father has it from the Son, imparted through the Holy Spirit. But he also who is a participant in the grace of Jesus Christ has the same grace, D given by the Father through the Holy Spirit. For in all things it is approved that the operation of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is the same. But of those for whom there is one operation, there is also one substance; for those things which are of the same substance are *homoousia* (of the same substance), and they have the same operations; and those things which are of another substance, and are *anomoousia* (of a differing substance), are dissonant and diverse.
18. Nor is the unity of the Trinity taught only by these things which we have set forth, but by countless others, of which we shall again set down a few in their own order. Peter, rebuking Ananias because he had committed fraud in the sale of the field, the whole price of which he said he had offered, proved the unity of the Holy Spirit with God, not according to number, but according to substance, saying: “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart, that you should lie to the Holy Spirit and hide from the price of the field? While it remained, did it not remain to you? And being sold, was it not in your power? Why have you put this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God.” For if he who lies to the Lord lies to the Holy Spirit, and he who lies to the Holy Spirit lies to God, it is doubtful to no one that the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is with God. And in the same way that holiness subsists in God, in the same way also deity [or divinity] is understood in the Holy Spirit. But this Holy Spirit, whom we have stated to be of the same nature as the Father, does not differ even from the divinity of the Son, the Savior saying to the disciples: “When they shall bring you into the synagogue before principalities and powers, do not be anxious how or what you shall answer. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that hour what you ought to speak. Settle it in your hearts not to premeditate to answer. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which they shall not be able to resist or contradict.” And indeed, in these things, while saying that they ought not to be anxious as to what they should answer to those who contradict them, because in that same hour they are taught by the Holy Spirit what they ought to answer, he immediately brought forward what is the cause of their confidence, saying: “Settle it in your hearts not to premeditate to answer: for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which they shall not be able to resist or contradict.” For when he has said that in the time of answering they are to be taught by the Holy Spirit what they ought to answer, in what follows he says: “For I will give you a mouth and wisdom,” etc.
19. From which it is shown that wisdom is given to the disciples by the Son as the Holy Spirit, and that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is the doctrine of the Lord; and that the fellowship of the Holy Spirit with the Son is one of nature and of will. And because it was demonstrated above that the Spirit is a companion by nature to the Only-Begotten of God and to God the Father; but the Son and the Father are one, according to that: “I and the Father are one,” not divided [or indivisible], and inseparable, according to nature, the Trinity has been shown.
In another Gospel also it is said: “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” If, therefore, the Spirit of the Father speaks in the apostles, teaching them what they ought to answer, and what is taught by the Spirit is wisdom—which we cannot understand to be anyone other than the Son—it appears clearly that the Spirit is of the same nature with the Son, and with the Father, whose Spirit He is. Furthermore, the Father and the Son are one. Therefore, the Trinity is united in the unity of substance.
20. By another example from the Scriptures, the unity and nature of the Trinity, and its power, are shown. The Son is called the hand, and the right hand, and the arm of the Father. As we have frequently taught, from these terms the indifference A of one nature is demonstrated. The Holy Spirit is also called the finger of God, in accordance with the conjunction of the nature of the Father and of the Son. For, indeed, in one of the Gospels, against those who were detracting from the signs of the Lord, saying: “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons,” the Savior asks and says: “If I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Another evangelist describing this same passage, introduced the Son as saying: “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God.” From which it is shown that the finger of God is the Holy Spirit. If, therefore, the finger is joined to the hand, and the hand to Him whose hand it is; and the finger is without doubt referred to the substance of Him, whose finger it is.
21. But beware lest you, cast down by the humility of the discourse about which it is now being B disputed, depict in your mind the diversities of bodily limbs; and begin to imagine for yourself magnitudes, and inequalities, and the rest of the greater or lesser parts of bodies; saying that a finger is distinct from a hand, and a hand from Him whose hand it is, by many inequalities, because Scripture now speaks concerning incorporeal things, wishing only to demonstrate unity, not the measure of substance: for just as the hand is not divided from the body, through which it accomplishes and performs all things, and is in Him whose hand it is: so also the finger is not separated from the hand, whose finger it is. C Therefore, cast away inequalities and measures when you think of God, and understand the unity of the finger and the hand, and of the whole substance: by which finger the law was written on stone tablets. By another Scripture also, it is very easy to show the proof of our faith. God alone is called wise: not receiving wisdom from another, nor is He named wise through the participation of another's wisdom. For although many are called wise, it is not from their own nature, but from the communication of wisdom. But God, not having become wise by the participation of another's wisdom nor from elsewhere, is called the only wise One, and He who generates wisdom, and makes others wise. Which wisdom is our Lord Jesus Christ, who is called the power of God, and the wisdom of God. The Holy Spirit is also called wisdom. Indeed, it is also related in the ancient books that Joshua, son of Nun, was filled by the Lord with the spirit of wisdom. As, therefore, God alone is wise, not receiving wisdom from elsewhere, but making wise and generating wisdom: He is alone wise, apart from all who by naming are called wise: “For a multitude of the wise is the safety of the world”; and, “Those who know themselves, these are wise”; and again: “When you are with the wise, you will be wise”; so also the Holy Spirit, not receiving wisdom from elsewhere, is called the Spirit of wisdom; for this very thing which He subsists as, is the Spirit of wisdom, and His nature is nothing else but the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of God, concerning which we have already disputed abundantly in the volume on the Sects. Whence, lest we repeat the same things superfluously, we are content with the past dispute.
22. Therefore, since the Spirit of wisdom and truth is inseparably with the Son, He Himself also subsists as wisdom and truth. D For if He were capable of wisdom and truth, He would sometimes descend into that state, that He would cease to have what He had received from elsewhere, that is, wisdom and truth. And the Son, subsisting as wisdom and truth Himself, is not separated from the Father, who alone is proclaimed by the voices of the Scriptures as wise and Truth. The same circle of unity and substance of the Holy Spirit, according to that in which He is the Spirit of wisdom and truth, we see Him to possess with the Son, and again, the Son does not differ from the substance of the Father. Moreover, since the Son is the image of the invisible God, and the form of His substance, whoever are imagined and formed according to this image or form, are brought into the likeness of God: according, however, to the powers of human progress, following such a form and image. Similarly, the Holy Spirit also, since He is the seal of God, those who take the form and image of God, signed through Him, are led in Him to the seal of Christ's wisdom and knowledge, being also full of faith. “For there are divisions of operations, but the same Spirit who works all things in all.” Working therefore
as it were, the distributing nature of the Holy Spirit, let us not be led away by those who say that the Holy Spirit is an operation, and not the substance of God. And from many other places also, the subsistent nature of the Holy Spirit is demonstrated; as in that which the apostles write: A “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us,” because this which is said, “it seemed good,” does not signify an operation, but a nature, especially since something similar is found concerning the Lord, as: “As it seemed good to the Lord, so it was done.” Finally, His words are also read very frequently, as in that passage: “As they were fasting and ministering,” that is, the disciples of Christ, B “the Holy Spirit said: Separate for me Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them.” Which voice, being an index of divinity and authority, demonstrates not a created, but an uncreated substance. For the Holy Spirit did not call Barnabas and Paul to some other work that is not the Father's and the Son's, since the ministry which He committed and delivered to them is the ministry of the Father and of the Son. To the Galatians, Paul speaks: “For He who worked in Peter for the apostleship of the circumcision, worked also in me for the Gentiles,” and in Barnabas. C For in like manner they were directed to the nations by the authority of the Holy Spirit. With Christ also working in the apostles, the ministry was completed by the Spirit, so that the apostles themselves confess that they speak in Christ, and that which their eyes have seen, and they have become ministers of the word, that is, of Christ; and stewards of the mysteries of God. Finally, as possessing a primacy in the priesthood, they are shown to be initiators of faith by Christ, who says: “Going, therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” And as the Apostle writes D most rightly: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” Who will not be compelled by the very truth to accept the non-difference of the Holy Trinity, while there is one faith in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit; and the laver is given and confirmed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit?
24. I do not think anyone will be so foolish or insane as to think that the baptism which is given in the name of the Father and of the Son, without the assumption of the Holy Spirit, is perfect; or again in the name of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, with the name of the Son omitted; or certainly in the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, without the name of the Father being proposed. For although someone might exist of a stony (so to speak) heart, and of a mind entirely alienated, who might attempt to baptize in such a way as to omit one of the commanded names, namely, as a legislator contrary to Christ; yet he will baptize without perfection, nay, he will be unable to free from sins those whom he considers to have been baptized by him. From these things it is collected how indivisible the substance of the Trinity is, and that the Father is truly the Father of the Son, and the Son truly the Son of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is truly the Spirit of the Father and of God; and in addition, of wisdom and truth, that is, of the Son of God. This, therefore, is the salvation of believers, and the dispensation of ecclesiastical discipline is perfected in this Trinity. For when the Savior sent His disciples to preach the Gospel, and is said to have constituted in the Church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, on this matter the Apostles also agree in sentiment: “And as we have been approved by God to believe the Gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who proved our hearts”: these same ones whom Christ commanded to be teachers, and the Father proved, the Holy Spirit is also said to have constituted as stewards and overseers in the Church. For when Paul the apostle had gathered the presbyters from various places and very many Churches at Miletus: “Take heed,” he says, “to yourselves and to the whole flock, over which the Holy Spirit has placed you as bishops to rule the Church of the Lord, which He acquired with His own blood.” For if the Holy Spirit placed over the Church those whom Christ sent to evangelize and baptize the nations, destined by the decision of the Father; no doubt exists that the operation and approval of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is one, and consequently that the substance of the Trinity is the same. Furthermore, it must also be considered that a creature cannot dwell in the heart and sense, unless God and His word [dwell] in the Holy Spirit, just as the Father speaks to certain ones: “I will dwell in them, and I will walk among them.” And to Him someone directs his voice: “But You dwell in the holy, the praise of Israel.” For the High One dwells in the high.
A Creator of the entire creation. But the only-begotten Son also dwells in the pure mind and heart of the faithful. For the Apostle says that Christ dwells in the inner man through faith, writing thus: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” And He Himself speaks of Himself: “Christ lives in me”; and again: “Christ who speaks in me”; and the Savior says: “We will come,” He says, “I and the Father,” there is no doubt, to him who has kept His commandments, “and we will make our abode with him.” Furthermore, this discourse is connected as follows: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. And my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him.” In another place, also, the whole nature of rational creatures is called the house of the Savior.
25. But just as the Lord Jesus is over His own house, whose house we are: so the house of Christ is the temple of God, in which the Spirit of the same God dwells. For Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?” If, however, the Holy Spirit is found immediately in the house and temple where the Father and the Savior dwell, the indivisible substance of the Trinity is demonstrated from this. And not long after in the same Epistle: “Do you not know,” he says, “that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, whom you have from God?” Since, therefore, the Holy Spirit, B like the Father and the Son, is taught to dwell in the mind and the inner man, I will not say it is inept, but impious to call Him a creature. For it is possible for disciplines—I mean virtues and arts—and their opposites, perturbations, ignorances, and affections, to dwell in souls; not, however, as substances, but as accidents. But it is impossible for a created nature to dwell in the mind. But if this is true, and it is certain that the Holy Spirit, subsisting without any ambiguity, is the inhabitant of the soul and the heart, there is no doubt that He must be believed to be uncreated, with the Father and the Son. Therefore, from all that the preceding discourse has argued, the Holy Spirit, shown to be incorruptible and eternal according to the nature of the Father and the Son, has removed all ambiguity and suspicion concerning Himself, lest He be considered one of the created substances. But neither can it be doubted that this Spirit of God is He whom the words of the Gospel declare. “When He comes,” He says, “the Comforter, whom I will send to you, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness concerning me.” But He refers to the coming Holy Spirit as Comforter, giving Him a name from His operation: because He not only comforts those whom He finds worthy of Himself, and renders them aliens to all sadness and perturbation, but bestows upon them a certain incredible joy and hilarity, to such an extent that one, giving thanks to God that he is considered worthy of such a guest, can say: “You have given joy to my heart.” C For eternal joy dwells in the heart of those whose inhabitant is the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is sent by the Son, not according to the ministry of angels, or prophets, or apostles, but as it befits the Spirit of God to be sent by Wisdom and Truth, having an indivisible nature with the same Wisdom and Truth. For the Son, sent by the Father, is not separated, nor is He disjoined from Him, remaining and having Him in Himself. Indeed, the Spirit of truth, sent in the aforementioned manner, proceeds from the Father through the Son, not migrating from one place to another. For this is at once impossible and blasphemous. For if the Spirit goes forth from place to place, then the Father Himself will be found in a place, and the Spirit of truth, circumscribed by a certain space according to the nature of bodies, leaving one place, will migrate to another. But even as the Father, not existing in a place, is beyond the whole nature of bodies, so the Spirit of truth is not at all enclosed by the limit of places, since He is incorporeal: and to speak more truly, He excels every rational creature.
26. Therefore, it is impossible and impious to believe what we have said about incorporeal things: to understand the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father in such a way as the Savior testifies that He Himself departed from God, saying: “I departed from God and came.” And as we separate places and the changing of places from incorporeal beings, so we discern the processions, I mean those within and those without, from the nature of intellectual beings, because these are events of bodies—those that receive and have vastness. Therefore, by an D ineffable and sole faith, it is to be believed by a known discourse that the Savior is said to have departed from God, and the Spirit of truth to proceed from the Father, as the Spirit Himself speaks, who proceeds from the Father.
For although He could have spoken of God, or of the Lord, or of the Almighty, He touched upon none of these; but He says, "from the Father"—not that the Father is other than God Almighty, for it is a wickedness even to think this—but according to the property and understanding of the Parent, the Spirit of truth is said to proceed from Him. For although the Savior frequently says that He has come forth from God, He assumes from the name of the Father the property—and, if I may so say, the familiarity—which we have already often discussed, saying: "I am in the Father, and the Father in me" A, and elsewhere: "I and the Father are one" 26; and many other things similar to these, which the reader will find by observing the Gospel. Therefore, this Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father will bear witness, the Lord says, of me 27, bringing a testimony similar to that of the Father's testimony, of whom He says: "He who sent me, the Father, bears witness of me" 28. But while the Son sends the Spirit of truth, whom He called the Comforter, the Father also sends Him at the same time. For the Father does not fail to send when the Son is sending, since the Spirit comes by the same will of the Father and the Son, as the Savior also speaks through the prophet, as will be able to be manifest to him who reads through the whole passage 63: "And the Lord sent me, and His Spirit" 29; since God sends not only the Son, but also the Spirit. But the Apostle also speaks: "Which things have now been reported to you by those who have preached the Gospel to you, the Holy Spirit having been sent from heaven" 29. And in the book which is inscribed Wisdom, a voice of thanksgiving is destined for God by those who have obtained divine gifts: "For who has searched out the things that are in heaven? But who has known your will, unless you gave Wisdom, and sent your Holy Spirit from on high? And so the paths of those who were upon the earth were made straight, and men were taught the things that are pleasing to you" 30. And in the present reading, indeed, not only the Wisdom of God—that is, His only-begotten Son—is given by the Father, but the Holy Spirit is also sent.
27. In the Gospel itself, it is proclaimed that He is given by the Father, and that the Holy Spirit is sent, the Savior saying: "And I will ask my Father, and He will give you another Paraclete, that He may be with you forever, the Spirit of truth" 31; and again: "But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things" 32. For in these discourses, the Father is said to give another Paraclete—not another apart from Him who is sent by the Son, B according to that: "But when that Paraclete comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth" 33. He called Him another Paraclete, not according to a difference of nature, but a diversity of operation. For while the Savior holds the person of mediator and legate, and, as high priest, prays for our sins, saving forever those who have approached God through Him, because He is always living to intercede for them [ms. for us] to the Father; the Holy Spirit, according to another significance, has been called Paraclete from the fact that He consoles those placed in sadness. But do not estimate that there are various natures from the diverse operation of the Son and Holy Spirit. For in another place the Paraclete Spirit is found to perform the person of a legate to the Father, as in that: "For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. But He who searches the hearts knows what the Spirit desires, how [al. when] He asks according to God for the saints" 33.
28. The Holy Spirit also, having been called Paraclete, works in the hearts of those who need it. For it is written: "And He has consoled the humble of the people" 34. Whence also he who had obtained this benefit, preaching Him, spoke: "Lord, according to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, Thy consolations have gladdened my heart" 35; or, "have loved my soul" 65; for it is found written in both ways in different manuscripts. But also the Father is called C the God of all consolation 36, consoling those who are in tribulation, so that from the very straits they may obtain, through patience, first salvation, and then the crown of glory. The Spirit, therefore, is the consoler and the holy one, and the Spirit of truth is given by the Father, so that He may always abide with the disciples of Christ, with whom the Savior Himself is also, saying: "For behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the age" 37. But when the Holy Spirit is always with the apostles, and the Son follows, it is as if the Father is with them, because whoever receives the Son, receives also the Father; and the Son makes a dwelling with the Father among them who have proven themselves worthy of His coming. But also, where the Holy Spirit is, the Son is immediately found. For when the Holy Spirit is in the prophets, making them prophesy future things, and doing other things that are of prophetic operation, the Word of God is said to be made to them, so that to that which D according to the custom of the prophets
A even that may be added: "The word which was made to Isaiah," or to the others.
29. That the prophets possessed the Holy Spirit, we know from God manifestly speaking. For He says: "Whatever I have commanded in my Spirit to my servants the prophets." And the Savior in the Gospel signifies that holy men, and those who before His coming had sung of things to come to the people, were filled with the aspiration of the Holy Spirit. For, questioning the Pharisees as to what they thought concerning Christ, and hearing that he was the son of David, He speaks: "How does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand? If then David calls him Lord in the Holy Spirit, how is he his Son?" And Peter B speaks to his partners in faith: "It was necessary that the Scripture should be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, etc."; and in the same book again: "Who by the Holy Spirit," he says, "through the mouth of David your servant, have spoken: Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people meditated vain things?" Isaiah, also, when he had been moved to prophesy by the word of God, is testified to have prophesied by the command of the Holy Spirit: as is written at the end of the same Acts: "Well did the Holy Spirit speak through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers," saying: "Go to this people, and say: With the ear you shall hear," and the rest. This prophecy, therefore, which the apostle Paul affirms was pronounced by the Holy Spirit, the book of the prophet itself commemorates as having been said by the Lord. "And I heard," C says Isaiah, "the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send, and who shall go to this people? And I said: Behold me, send me. Go," he says, "and say to this people: With the ear you shall hear"; and after other things the Lord Himself says: "And they shall be converted, and I will heal them." And immediately the prophet: "How long, O Lord?" For when the Lord had said to the prophet that he should say the things that were written, and the prophet had answered the commanding Lord: "How long, O Lord?", Paul affirms that the things which were said by the Lord in the prophet were recorded in the Holy Spirit. From which it is clearly shown, as we have often said, that the will and nature of the Lord and of the Holy Spirit are one, and that in the naming of the Spirit the name of the Lord is also understood. For just as to the Corinthians the word "God" is placed over the Father, and "Lord" over the Son, and it does not D take away lordship from the Father, nor deity from the Son: since by the same reasoning by which the Father is Lord, and the Son is God: so too the Holy Spirit is called Lord. But if Lord, then consequently also God, as we said a little while ago, when we were setting forth the voice of the apostle Peter to Ananias, who had embezzled the money, because deity is also understood in the Holy Spirit.
30. But since the order of the question has thence been led: "But when the paraclete comes, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things": come now, let us inquire from the discourse itself if we can find in it anything that agrees with the things that have been said. The Savior affirms that the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father in His name, when "Son" is properly the name of the Savior, if indeed the community of nature, and, so to speak, the property of persons, is signified by this word. In which appellation of "Son," the Holy Spirit being sent by the Father, is not understood as a servant, nor someone else, nor disconnected from the Son. And in what way the Son comes in the name of the Father, saying: "I came in my Father's name": for it is only of the Son to come in the name of the Father, with the property of the Son to the Father, and of the Father to the Son, remaining safe: so conversely, no other comes in the name of the Father, but for the sake of an example, in the name of the Lord, and of God, and of the Almighty. Which you will be able to notice to be manifest by reading over the prophets from the heart. For even Moses, the great minister and servant of God, came in the name of Him who is, and in the name of the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, with God speaking to him: "Thus shall you say to the sons of Israel: He who is, has sent me to you"; and again: "You shall say to them: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has sent me to you." For of the holy servants, such as those were of whom He said: "I will command in my Spirit to my servants the prophets," the mission was done in the name of God. And because they showed themselves worthy to God, they are reported to have come in the name of God: again, progressing into something greater, and standing under the empire of one God, they came in the naming of the almighty God. But because the sons of Israel, dwelling in Egypt, had learned to worship those who are not, as if gods, and to revere the fathers of the world with divine honor, it was consequent that Moses should be sent to them under the name of Him who is, and freeing them from false gods, should lead them over to the true.
A 31. How, therefore, do servants who come in the name of the Lord, by this very fact that they are subjects and serve, indicate the Lord, referring to his property: for they are servants of the Lord. So too the Son, who comes in the name of the Father, bears the Father's property and name, and through these the only-begotten Son of God is approved [al. called]. Since, therefore, the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father in the name of the Son, possessing the Son's property, according to what He is God, yet not felicity—in the way that he is His Son—he shows that He is joined to the Son in unity. Whence also the Spirit is called the Spirit of the Son, making them sons by adoption, who have willed to receive Him. "For because," he says, "you are sons of God, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying: Abba, Father." But this Holy Spirit, who comes in the name of the Son, sent by the Father, will teach all things to those who have been perfected in the faith of Christ, and indeed all those things which are spiritual and intellectual; and to conclude everything briefly, all the sacraments of truth and wisdom. He will teach, however, not as a doctor and master of a discipline which he has obtained from elsewhere: since this is the property of those who have learned wisdom and any arts B by study and industry; but as the very art and doctrine and wisdom and Spirit of truth Himself, He invisibly insinuates the knowledge of divine things into the mind. For the Father also teaches His disciples in this way, since he who had been taught by Him said: "God, you have taught me wisdom." And another boldly proclaimed: "You have taught me, God, from my youth," and thus all become taught by God. The Son of God also, the wisdom of God and the truth, teaches His participants in such a way that He does not teach the discipline by art, but by nature. Whence the disciples are taught to call Him the sole master. The Holy Spirit ministers these same disciplines, which are given by the Father and the Son into the hearts of the faithful, to those who have ceased to be animal [al. who desist]. For the "animal man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit," judging what is said to be foolishness; but he who has purged his mind from perturbations will be filled with the disciplines of the Holy Spirit—that is, with the words of wisdom and knowledge—to such an extent that he who has received them may say: "But to us, God has revealed them through the Holy Spirit." C But God, to those who have prepared themselves in this way, bestows the Spirit of wisdom and revelation for the sake of knowing Himself; and those who receive the Spirit of wisdom are made wise not from elsewhere, but by the Holy Spirit Himself, and from Him they understand the Lord, and whatever is the will of God, and they know this same Spirit, He Himself revealing it, so that they may know that it was given to them by the Lord: so that anyone who has followed the Spirit of revelation and wisdom may be sufficient to preach the dogmas of truth, not relying on human but on God's art: just as we can hear one of the Apostles saying: "And my speech and my preaching was not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power of God." We cannot interpret any power as equal to the Spirit except our Lord Christ. For He Himself said to the disciples: "You shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you"; and the angel [al. archangel] said to Mary: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you." Therefore, the creative power of the Most High, with the Holy Spirit coming upon the Virgin Mary, fashioned the body of Christ, which He used as a temple, being born without the seed of man.
32. From which things it is shown that the Holy Spirit is the creator, as we briefly showed in the volume of Dogmas. And in the Psalm it is said to the Lord: "You shall take away their breath (Spirit), and they shall fail, and shall return to their dust. You shall send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created, and You shall renew the face of the earth." Nor is it a wonder if the Holy Spirit is the maker of the Lord's own body, since, associated with the Father and the Son, He created by the same power all things which the Father and the Son created. "For send forth," He says, "Your Spirit, and they shall be created." Moreover, we have already frequently shown that the Holy Spirit is of the same operation as the Father and the Son, and that in the same operation there is one substance: and reciprocally that the operation of those things which are consubstantial is not diverse. But in order that we may also provide another testimony which can assist us in the faith of the Holy Spirit, the discourse in the Gospel is woven thus: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said unto you, that He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you."
33. For from these words of the sacraments we are taught that when Jesus had taught his disciples many things, He said: "I have yet many things to say unto you," because that word, "I have yet many things to say unto you," is not directed to any random new people, and those utterly void of God's grace: but to those who, as hearers of His words, had not yet been fully completed.
A For whatever was capable of being received, He imparted to them, but deferred the rest to a future time: things which they could not know without the discipline of the Holy Spirit, because before the coming of the Lord’s passion the Holy Spirit had not been given to men, as the evangelist says: "For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." By saying that Jesus was glorified, he means tasting death for all. And so, appearing to His disciples after the resurrection, and breathing into their faces, He says: "Receive the Holy Spirit"; and again: "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." Upon His coming into the hearts of the faithful, they are filled with the words of wisdom and knowledge, and thus having become spiritual, they receive the discipline of the Holy Spirit, which can lead them into all truth. For the hour had not yet come B when it was necessary for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit; thus, when He said to them, "I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now," He added this consequently. For until then, they were still serving under the type of the Law, and of the shadow, and of symbols, and could not look upon the truth (the shadow of which the law carried), and thus could not endure the spiritual things. "But when He," He says, "shall come"—that is, the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth—"He will guide you into all truth," by His doctrine and institution transferring you from the death of the letter to the vivifying Spirit, in whom alone the entire truth of Scripture is placed. Therefore, the Spirit of truth Himself, entering a pure and simple mind, will seal in you the knowledge of the truth, and always adding new things to the old, will guide you into all truth.
34. Alleging certain prayers to God the Father, he speaks: "Direct me in your truth," that is, in Your Only-Begotten, who testifies with His own voice: "I am the truth." This perfection God bestows by sending the Spirit of truth, who guides those who believe into the whole truth. Then, in the following [words] concerning the Spirit of truth, who is sent by the Father and is the Paraclete, the Savior (who is also truth) says: "For He will not speak from Himself," that is, not without Me, and without My and the Father’s will, because He is inseparable C from My and the Father’s will, since He is not from Himself, but is from the Father and from Me; for this very thing which subsists and speaks is from the Father and from Me to Him. I speak the truth, that is, I inspire what is spoken; since He is the Spirit of truth. But "to say" and "to speak" in the Trinity must not be understood according to our custom, by which we converse and speak to one another, but according to the form of incorporeal natures, and especially of the Trinity, which inserts its own will into the heart of the faithful, and of those who are worthy to hear it: this is what "to say" and "to speak" mean.
35. For when we men speak to one another, we first conceive what we desire in our mind without words. Then, wishing to transfer it into the sense of another, we move the organ of the tongue and, striking it like a certain plectrum against the chords of the teeth, we emit a vocal sound. Just as, therefore, we cause the tongue to strike against the palate and teeth and temper the struck air into various forms of speech so that we may communicate matters known to us to others; so too is it necessary for the listener to offer open ears, and to prick them up—not restricted by any defect—to what is being said, that he may be able to know what is being uttered just as he who is speaking knows them. However, God, being of a simple, uncomposed, and spiritual nature, has neither ears nor organs by which a voice is emitted; but His solitary and incomprehensible substance is not composed of any members or parts. Which, indeed, must be likewise understood concerning the Son and the Holy Spirit.
36. If, therefore, we read in the Scriptures: "The Lord said to my Lord," and elsewhere, "God said, Let there be light," and anything similar to these, we ought to accept them in a manner worthy of God. For the Father does not announce His will without the Son (who is wisdom and truth), since everything which He speaks, as one who is wise and truly subsisting, he possesses in wisdom and in substance. Therefore, for the Father to speak and for the Son to hear, or conversely, for the Son speaking, to hear the Father, is a signification of the consensus and the same nature in the Father and the Son. Likewise, the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of wisdom, cannot, when the Son speaks, be hearing what He does not know, since this very thing which is brought forth by the Son is that which is proceeding from the truth, con-
a Comforter flowing from the Comforter, God from God, the Spirit of truth proceeding from the Truth, a Comforter flowing, etc. Indeed, lest anyone should separate Him from the will and fellowship of the Father and the Son, it is written: “For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, He shall speak.” To which the Savior adds a similar statement concerning Himself: “As I hear, I judge”; and elsewhere: “The Son can do nothing of Himself, A but what He seeth the Father do.” For if the Son is one with the Father, not according to the dictum of Sabellius, who confuses the Father and the Son, but according to the indiscretion of essence or substance, He cannot do anything without the Father, because the works of separated beings are diverse; but seeing the Father working, He also works, not in a second degree or working after Him. For the works of the Father and the works of the Son would begin to be different if they were not done equally. Now it is written: “For what things soever He doeth, these also the Son doeth likewise.” But if, while the Father and Son are working—not according to an order of first and second, but according to the same time of acting—all things that are made subsist, and the Son cannot do anything of Himself, because He cannot be separated from the Father, so also the Holy Spirit, not being separated from the Son, on account of the fellowship of will and nature, is not believed to speak of Himself, but speaks all things that He speaks according to the Word and Truth of God. The following words of the Lord confirm this opinion, when He says: “He shall glorify Me,” that is, the Paraclete; “because He shall receive of Mine.” Here again, “to receive” must be understood as befitting the divine nature, B so that we may believe that there is the same nature of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, which is that of the Father and the Son.
38. For because no human voice can judge anything other than bodies, and the Trinity, of which we are now speaking, surpasses all material substances, therefore no word can be properly fitted to It, nor can it signify Its substance, but everything we say is *katachresticos*, that is, abusive, concerning all incorporeal things, and especially when we speak of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit therefore glorifies the Son, showing Him and bringing Him into the open for those who are worthy to understand and see Him, and to know the splendor of the substance and the image of the invisible God. On the other hand, the image itself, showing Itself to pure minds, glorifies the Father, revealing Him to those who do not know Him, for He Himself says: “He who seeth Me, seeth the Father also.” The Father, too, revealing the Son to those who have merited to arrive at the peak of knowledge, glorifies His Only-begotten, showing His magnificence and power. But the Son Himself also, bestowing the Holy Spirit upon those who have prepared themselves worthy of His gift, and unfolding C the sublimity of the glorification, and the power of His magnitude, glorifies Him. Then, adding the interpretation, when He had said in what manner, “He shall receive of Mine,” He immediately added: “All things that the Father hath are Mine; therefore I said, He shall receive of Mine and shall announce it to you,” speaking in a certain way, that although the Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father, and God gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him, yet because “All things that the Father hath are Mine,” and the Spirit Himself is My Spirit, He shall receive of Mine. But beware, when these things are said, lest you fall into a grave fault of understanding, and think that there is some thing and possession which is held by the Father and the Son. But the things which the Father has according to substance, that is, eternity, immutability, incorruption, immutable goodness, subsisting of Himself and in Himself, these same things the Son also has. And, to add more, whatever the Son Himself subsists as, and whatever are the Son’s, these same things the Father also has. Far be from here the snares of dialecticians, and let the sophisms be driven away from the truth, which, catching at an occasion for impiety from pious preaching, say: "Therefore the Father is the Son, and the Son is the Father." For if He had said, all things whatsoever God has, D which He bestows, nor does He impart them to others with His own loss, so also the Spirit does not receive what He did not have before. For if He receives what He did not have before, with the gift being transferred to another, the giver is rendered empty, ceasing to possess what he bestows. How then, debating above about incorporeal natures, we understood, so also now we understand that the Holy Spirit receives from the Son, that which was to be known of His own nature, and not that the giver and the receiver signify two substances, but one. For indeed the Son also is said to receive from the Father the very things by which He Himself subsists. For the Son is nothing else, except for those things which are given to Him by the Father; nor is the substance of the Holy Spirit anything else besides that which is given to Him by the Son. Therefore this is said, that we may believe that there is the same nature of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, which is that of the Father and of the Son.
A mine are, impiety might have occasion to invent, and it would seem like a lie. But when He said, "All things that the Father has are mine," He declared Himself to be the Son by the name of the Father; He did not usurp the paternity, for He was the Son, although He Himself, by the grace of adoption, is Father to many saints, according to that which is read in the Psalms, "If your sons keep my covenant," and again, "If his sons forsake my law." But in this discourse and in the sense proposed, it follows that the Son has those things which we have said above belong to the Father, and the Holy Spirit also has those things which belong to the Son. For He says, "He shall take of mine, and for this reason He shall declare them to you." For through the Spirit of truth, certain knowledge of future things is granted to holy men. Whence also the prophets, being filled with this same Spirit, would foretell B by a sense, and contemplate as if they were present the things that were to follow thereafter. Let it suffice to have said these things abundantly enough according to the poverty of our talent concerning the present chapter of the Gospel. But if the Lord has revealed more to some, and they have been brought into the vicinity of the truth, and are more capable of discerning the truth, let us concede the better things to their disputation, to whom He who is the Spirit of truth gives support; and we ask those who are about to read to forgive our inexperience, and grant pardon to our zeal, desiring to offer to God all that he could, although he could not fulfill his own intention.
59. Let us set forth the Apostle’s testimony to the Romans, and let us discuss those things that appear to us to be in harmony with the present subject matter. "That the justification," he says, "of the law might be fulfilled in you, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For they who are according to the flesh, savor the things that are of the flesh: but they who are according to the spirit, savor the things that are of the spirit. For the wisdom of the flesh is death; but the wisdom of the spirit is life and peace; because the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God: for it is not subject to the law of God; neither can it be. And they who are in the flesh, cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit: if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. And if Christ be in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit lives because of justice. And if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; he that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die: but if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live. For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba, D Father. For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God. And if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ: yet so, if we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him." In this present chapter of the Apostle, many things are demonstrated concerning the fellowship which the Spirit has with the Father and the Son. For the Apostle asserts that divine justification and the spiritual law is fulfilled in those who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. The apostolic text has described him who walks according to the flesh, as one who, joined to the body by the pleasures and vices of the flesh, does all things which are of the flesh and the works of the body. Furthermore, it describes him who walks according to the Spirit as one who, proceeding in the precepts of the law of God and the Gospel, follows the order of spiritual commandments. For just as it is of carnal vices to savor those things which are of the flesh, and to think of those things which are of the bodies, so, on the contrary, it is the virtue of spiritual things always to think of heavenly and eternal things, and to occupy themselves with those things which are of the spirit. But the wisdom of the flesh, being immediately linked to death, destroys those who walk and savor according to the flesh; but the wisdom of the spirit bestows upon those who have it interior peace, and tranquility of mind, and eternal life. When they have possessed this, they will have under their feet all perturbations and kinds of vices, and the very demons themselves (who strive to suggest these things). The wisdom of the flesh, therefore, since it is joined to death, is an enemy to God. For it renders those people enemies who have lived by their own laws; it is always contrary, and repugnant to the will and law of God. For it is not possible that he who is in the wisdom of the flesh should keep the precepts of God, and be subject to His will. As long as we serve the passions, we cannot serve God. But when we have subjected the tickling luxury to our feet, and, transferring ourselves wholly to the spirit, we are no longer in the flesh—that is, in the passions of the flesh—then we shall be subjected to God. For the Apostle’s text is not about this flesh in which we live, and in whose vessel our soul is contained, because all the saints, being surrounded by body and flesh, have pleased God; but it pertains rather to that which is perpetrated against the commandment of God by human society, of which is: "You shall love the Lord your God," and: "What you would not have done to you," etc. You, however, he says, there is no doubt that you, the disciples of Christ, who have received the wisdom of the Spirit, and life and peace, are not in the flesh, that is, in the works of the flesh, nor do you perform its works, if indeed you have the Spirit of God in you. But the same Spirit of God is also the Spirit of Christ, leading and coupling to the Lord Jesus Christ him who has it in himself. Whence also in what follows it is written: "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is not his."
40. Again in the present [section] we learn the fellowship which the Holy Spirit has with God, and with
A Christ. Moreover, in the Epistle of Peter, the Holy Spirit is proven to be the Spirit of Christ: "Searching," he says, "and inquiring," that is, the prophets, "what or what manner of time" (95) the Spirit of Christ that was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow: unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit, however, is also called the Spirit of God, not only in the present passage, but also in many other places, as where it is said: "The things of God no man knows, but the Spirit of God." Then follows what is said after this: "If any man have not the Spirit of God, he is not of him"; and it is inferred: "But if Christ be in you," and it is most manifesty shown B that the Holy Spirit is inseparable from Christ: because wheresoever the Holy Spirit shall be, there also is Christ, and from wheresoever the Spirit of Christ shall depart, thence likewise departs Christ. "For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is not of his." To which connection, if anyone were to assume the contrary, he might say: If any man is of Christ, so that Christ is in him, in him is the Spirit of God. And this same thing is likewise to be understood of God the Father. If any man possess not the Spirit of God, he is not of him. To which again, if one were to assume the contrary, saying: If any man is of God, in him is the Spirit of God. Whence it is written: "Know you not that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" And in the Epistle of John: "Hereby it is known that God dwelleth in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit." From all which the indissoluble and inseparable substance of the Trinity C is demonstrated.
41. When therefore he says: "The body indeed is dead because of sin," by no means serving vices and lasciviousness, but (96) mortified unto sin, it is not moved unto vices: and it will by no means be vital unto sin. After, however, the body has been dead unto sin, Christ, in those who have mortified their own bodies, shows the presence of the Spirit of life through justice or the correction of immortal works, or the faith of Jesus Christ (97), in those who conduct themselves according to his faith. Then the Apostle uses another conjunctive syllogism, which the dialecticians more significantly call the D axiom, and says: "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of his Spirit that dwelleth in you." Does it not seem to you that he says: If the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus Christ, that is, who is the Spirit of the same Jesus Christ, dwelleth in you: consequently your mortal bodies will be quickened along with your immortal souls (98) by him who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, the prince and firstborn of the resurrection? And to whom such and so great a gift has been granted through the Spirit, we are debtors to the Spirit, not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you shall live according to the flesh, you shall die that death which follows sin. For sin, when it is perfected, begets death, A according to James. But also Ezekiel writes that a sinning soul dies. For it is already separated from the life which is situated in the wisdom of the Spirit.
42. If, however, anyone shall have surpassed the life of the flesh, and shall have mortified the works of the flesh by the Spirit (99), he shall live a blessed and eternal life, brought into the sons of God, and directed into the straight way because of the Holy Spirit, who is also called the Spirit of God. "For if," he says, "you live according to the flesh, you shall die. But if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live"; and in the consequences: "For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Again refreshing them, and consoling them, and provoking them to hope for better things, he says B to those to whom he was speaking: "For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear," that is, you do not abstain from vices by the likeness of servants, through the fear and terror of punishments, because you have the Spirit of adoption given to you (1) by the Father, that is, the Holy Spirit, who himself is called the Spirit both of God, and of Christ, and of truth, and of wisdom. If, however, this Spirit adopts into the sons of God those whose inhabitant he is made by his condescension, I leave to you the understanding of the things that follow concerning his power.
Furthermore, in this Spirit of adoption, those who have possessed him cry out to God the Father, as the speech shows, saying: "In whom we cry: Abba, Father": C the Spirit himself, who adopts us into sons, bearing witness by the participation of himself, which is possessed by our spirit, that we are the sons of God. To which it is consequent that God indeed, as a father, has bestowed upon us hereditary riches, spiritual gifts; but that we are co-heirs of Christ, in that we are called his brothers through his grace and kindness.
A And those who agree with his mercy and his virtues, they say, in everything which he renders to them, not according to their justice, but according to his mercy and goodness, he who is judge to the house that sees, and to the mind that with a pure heart perceives the Lord. For this is interpreted from the Hebrew idiom into our tongue as Israel, that is, a mind seeing God. For although the Judge sometimes inflicts torments and punishments on those who deserve judgment, yet he who looks more deeply into the causes of things, seeing the purpose of his goodness, who desires to correct the sinner, confesses him to be good, saying: "Bringing upon us according to his mercy." For if the Lord should heed their iniquities whom he judges, who shall stand? Moreover, because there is propitiation with the Lord, our Lord and Savior clearly brings upon us, according to his mercy, all things which promote us unto salvation. Bringing upon us also according to his mercy, and doing this in judgment, he grants us things that are, when mingled with the kindness of mercy, justice.
43. Moreover, because this is as much as we have been able to explain, let us put forward the chapter of the prophet, containing certain things concerning the Holy Spirit, so that we may be taught about his faith and understanding not only from the New, but also from the Old Testament. For we have already spoken previously, that in all the saints, as much in those who were after the advent of our Lord, as also in former times, in the patriarchs namely and the prophets, the grace of the Holy Spirit has resided, and has filled them with diverse charisms and virtues. For just as possessing the grace of one God and His Only-begotten, as much those who were before, as even those who were after his advent, raised the standard of justice and attained the knowledge of truth; so they will also possess the grace of the Holy Spirit, because I have shown in many places above that the Holy Spirit is inseparable from the Father and the Son. It is therefore written in the prophet: "I have remembered the mercies of the Lord, and his virtue in all things that he hath rendered to us. The Lord is a good judge to the house of Israel, bringing upon us according to his mercy, and according to the multitude of his justice. And he said: Is not my people my children, and will they not turn aside? And he was made for them a salvation out of all their tribulation; not an envoy, nor an angel, but he himself saved them, because he loved them and spared them. He himself redeemed them, and took them up, and exalted them in all the days of the age. But they did not believe, and provoked his Holy Spirit; and he was turned C to them into an enemy. He himself fought against them, and remembered the days of old. He who led out from the earth the shepherd of the sheep, who placed in them the Holy Spirit, gathering Moses with his right hand."
44. Those who have frequently attained the benefits of God, knowing that they have attained them more through his grace and mercy, than through their own works from themselves, as if by the consent of all and agreeing in one mind, they say: "I have remembered the mercies of the Lord." For thinking on the gifts which they have frequently received from him through Moses, they return thanks, and with mercy, they also remember the virtues of the Lord, whether his miracles, which he often did for them among the peoples, or the progress of the soul, by which they were instructed through the law, and the prophets, and his salutary precepts. Indeed in the Scriptures the name of virtue signifies both. D
43. One must argue from this present chapter against the error of the heretics, who, separating goodness from justice, have invented one good God and another just one. For behold, in the present text, He himself is God, both good and a judge, and one who restores according to his mercy and justice, and subsists equally as both good and just. Therefore, it is in vain that they feign an unrighteous dogma, and maintain that the God of the Gospel is good and the God of the Old Testament is just, because both in very many other places, and now in the prophet's discourse, God is written as a "good judge," and on the contrary, which they do not wish, in the Epistle of the apostle Paul (who is certainly a preacher of the New Testament) God is referred to as a just judge. "There is laid up for me," he says, "a crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that day." The God of the New and Old Testament is therefore the same, though they are unwilling, the creator of visible and invisible things, with the Savior also clearly testifying in the Gospel to a just and good Father: "Just Father, the world hath not known thee." And in another place: "None is good, but one, God." But also in the old law God is called at one time just, at another good. In the Psalms, he says, "The Lord is just, and hath loved justice." And on the contrary in Jeremiah, "The Lord is good to them that wait for him." Again in the Psalms: "How good is God to Israel, to them that are of a right heart." And these things indeed are by way of an aside against the heretics.
These matters have been stated briefly. It is time, however, as we A proposed, to follow the order of the prophet, which is woven thus: "And he said, there is no doubt that the Lord: 'Did not my people have sons, and will they not transgress?'" They were not, he says, like those who were begotten and exalted, and who despised Him who had begotten them. "And he became their salvation," that is, to those of whom the Lord says: "Did not my people have sons, and will they not transgress?" For this very fact, that they did not transgress and did not despise the Father, became their salvation: or by the very fact that they were called sons, He became the cause of salvation for them. This salvation, bestowed by Christ the Lord, is also confirmed by the voice of the angels to the shepherds, saying: "Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people; for there is born to you this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David." He has become, for all who believe in Him, the occasion of eternal salvation, and He is the Savior of the world, who came to seek what was lost. And He is the One of whom the choir of saints sings: "Our God, the God of [the act of] saving."
B Consequently, because He is God who provides eternal salvation, it was said: "Neither a messenger, nor an angel," that is, not a prophet, not a patriarch, not the lawgiver Moses saved them. For all whom I have named could exercise an embassy to the Lord on behalf of the people. Indeed, Moses, interceding for the sinful people, says: "If You forgive them their sin, forgive." But he besought pardon by fasting for forty days, and by the affliction of his soul provoking the mercy of God. But no one from the number of these messengers can be a savior, being himself in need of Him who is the true bestower of salvation. For even the angels, although they are spirits, and are sent for diverse ministries on behalf of those who are about to receive salvation, are not the authors of salvation, but they interpret and announce Him who is the C fountain of salvation. Whence it was said, "neither a messenger, nor an angel, but the Lord Himself saved them." Not for any other reason, but because "He loved them and spared them." Now, He is said to "spare," as if they were His own creatures, according to what is written elsewhere: "But You spare all, O Lord, lover of souls, for they are Yours, for You do not hate what You have made." Wherefore, the Father, not sparing His own Son for their salvation, handed Him over to death, so that through the death of His Son He might destroy him who had the empire of death, that is, the devil, and redeem all who were held by him in the bond of captivity. Whence it is added: "But He Himself redeemed them, and took them up, and exalted them." For He takes up and exalts the saved, and lifts up the redeemed on the sublime wings of virtues, and with the learning and knowledge of the truth, not for one day or another, but for all the days of eternity, D dwelling in them, and with them, even to the consummation of the world, bestowing upon them life, and existing as the author of their salvation. And in all the days of the world, illuminating their hearts, He does not permit them to linger in the darkness of ignorance and error. And I think this is what is written, "in all the days He exalted them."
47. Because they were changeable, and fell spontaneously into vices, after so many benefits they became incredulous toward God, and abandoned His precepts, and provoked the Holy Spirit of God, who had bestowed many good things upon them; they fell into a similar sin to those who, after they were begotten and exalted, despised their Father. Or certainly, they are now being described who were also described before, since even there, after the sin, it is said to them: "You have abandoned the Lord, and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, and now, because they themselves did not believe, B and provoked His Holy Spirit." From the present passage, therefore, the association of the Spirit with the Lord is shown. He who has abandoned the Lord, and is incredulous, and provokes the Holy One of Israel to anger, also provokes His Holy Spirit. The same indignation against sinners is referred as much to the Holy Spirit as to the Holy One of Israel. Whence also in the subsequent similar passages the union of the Trinity is shown, as Scripture says, that the Lord turned to enmity against those who provoked His Holy Spirit, and handed them over to eternal suffering, after they blasphemed, not in speech but in their deeds, against His Holy Spirit. He, therefore, who turned against them in enmity, fought against them, and subjected them to manifold and long sufferings, so that neither in the present time nor in the future may they obtain the forgiveness of sins. For they provoked His Holy Spirit, and blasphemed against Him.
48. But if you wish to understand this of the Jews, who crucified the Lord Savior, and therefore provoked the Holy Spirit, that which is written, "He Himself fought against them," is to be referred to that understanding, that they were handed over to the Romans, when the wrath of God came upon them to the end. For in the whole world and in all regions, they alone are exiles from their fatherland, wandering in a foreign land, possessing neither an ancient city nor their own seats, which they did to the prophets and to their own Savior, [and] which they received. For because they were blood-guilty, D and always captured by insane fury, they not only killed the prophets and stoned those who had been sent to them, but, having gone to the peak of impiety, they betrayed and crucified the Lord Savior, who had deigned to descend to earth for the salvation of all; therefore they were expelled from the city which they had stained with the blood of the prophets and of Christ. According to this sense, therefore, we must understand them to have been defeated by the Lord, not for a brief time, but...
A for every future age until the consummation of the world. Indeed, as we have said, they are refugees and captives, wandering among all nations, possessing neither a city nor a region of their own. Yet, because the One who had defeated them is naturally benign and merciful, He granted them a place for repentance, if they should wish to turn to better things. Hence it is also said, "He remembered the days of the age." For, having remembered the future times, He unlocked the closed door for them in some part, so that after the fullness of the Gentiles has entered, then all Israel (who shall have been worthy of this appellation) may be saved. For although they broke forth into such rashness that they killed Him who had been sent for their sake, saying: "His blood be upon us, and upon our children," yet God raised Him from the earth,—in whose heart He had tarried for three days and three nights,—as the shepherd of His sheep. For it is thus interwoven: "who brought out from the earth the shepherd of His sheep."
49. That the One who is now described in the prophetic utterance as the shepherd of His sheep is indeed the Lord, we learn more clearly in the Gospel, by the testimony of the Savior Himself: "I am the good shepherd, and I lay down my life for my sheep." And again: "My sheep hear my voice." After all these things, the prophet B says: "Where is He who put His Holy Spirit among them?" He marvels, indeed, at how great are the miseries to which they have fallen from such happiness. And he speaks in a certain manner: "He who had redeemed them, who had placed His Holy Spirit in them, dwelling with them, where is He now? Whither has He departed?" He abandoned them because they had first abandoned Him, and provoked the Holy One of Israel to wrath. But God had long ago placed the Holy Spirit in them, when they were still good and strove to obey His precepts. For the Holy Spirit is inserted only in those who, having abandoned vices, follow the chorus of virtues, and alongside them and through them live in the faith of Christ. But if, by negligence gradually creeping in, they begin to flow toward worse things, they incite the Holy Spirit, their inhabitant, against themselves, and they turn Him who had given that Spirit into enmity. To this, the Apostle likewise, writing to the Thessalonians, says: "For God did not call us to impurity, but to sanctification."
50. Therefore, he who scorns—or what is considered better—in the Greek, "who rejects," C not man will he reject, but God, who gave His Holy Spirit in you. For in these words, God, calling through faith to sanctification—that is, that believers might become holy spirits—gave them the Holy Spirit. And as long as they kept the precepts of God, the Holy Spirit, whom they had received, remained in them. But when they fell through slippery love and lapsed into impurity, they spurned—or rather, they prevaricated against—the Lord, who had given them the Holy Spirit, not so that they might serve impurity, but so that they might be sanctified. Hence, those who have committed such things will pay the penalty, not as if they were spurning a man, but as if they were spurning God. And that we may know that the Lord is the Holy Spirit who is given to believers, let us learn from the eloquence of the prophet Isaiah himself, who introduces someone saying to the Lord: "My Spirit is in you, and My words I have put in your mouth." For it is shown by the present discourse that whoever has received the Spirit of God, possesses with Him also the words of God—that is, the discourses of knowledge and wisdom. Indeed, in another place, the same prophet says that God speaks: "I have put My Spirit upon him." He, therefore, who placed the Holy Spirit in them, commemorates that Moses was sanctified by His right hand, whether that illustrious man and initiator of the mysteries of God, of whom the Lord said to Jesus the son of Nave: "Moses my servant," or His Law, which is written in the Old Testament. For I remember having often read that Moses is called "the law," as in the Apostle: "Unto this day, when Moses is read." And Abraham said to the rich man, established in torments: "They have," he says, "Moses and the prophets." And surely it is clearly proven there that by "Moses," the aforementioned man is not signified, but the law.
51. Further, what is the right hand of God, which added Moses, if not our Lord and Savior? For He Himself is the right hand of the Father, through whom He saves and exalts and performs power, just as it is said elsewhere D of God: "He saved for Himself by His right hand, and His holy arm." And again: "The right hand of the Lord has performed power, the right hand of the Lord has exalted me: I shall not die, but I shall live, and I shall tell the works of the Lord." And surely this voice is put forward from the person of the Lordly Man, whom the only-begotten Son of God deigned to assume from the virgin.
A It is manifestly proven from that very place, because He himself is at the right hand of God, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles, that He was made from the seed of David according to the flesh, born of the Virgin, with the Holy Spirit coming upon her, and the power of the Most High overshadowing her. Concerning whom David prophesied in the Spirit, that rising from the dead, He was assumed into the heavens, raised up at the right hand of God (22). But it is written there in this manner: "The same David, foreseeing, spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ, that He was not left (23) in hell, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, of whom we all are witnesses. Therefore, being exalted by the right hand of God, and receiving from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this gift in us, which you see and hear, for David did not ascend into heaven." For to no one is it doubtful B that the Lord Jesus was exalted by the right hand of God and rose from the dead, as He himself has testified in the discourse of the Scripture. Therefore, this One who rose from the dead says: "I have slept and taken my rest; and I have risen, because the Lord has kept me."
52. Therefore, this same Word (24) assumed into heaven, having been raised up from that [state] of which we spoke above, is preached as being at the right hand of God, and having received the promises of the Holy Spirit from the Father, and having poured Him out upon those who believe, so that they spoke the great works of God in the tongues of all. For the Lordly Man also received the communication of the Holy Spirit, as is written in the Gospels: "Jesus therefore, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan"; and in another place: "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee." However, we ought to accept these things without any calumny regarding the Lordly Man, who is the whole Christ, the one Jesus, the Son of God (25), in a sense of piety, not as though one [person] is one and another is another, but that discourse is being held about one and the same [Christ], as if of another according to the nature of God, and [of another] according to the nature of man, and because God the Word, the only-begotten Son of God, receives neither change nor increase. For He is the fullness of all good things. C 53. It is sufficiently supposed from the testimony of the prophet, nor let us proceed to the remaining things, so that just as we know that (26) the Father and the Son make the holy and the good perfect by their communication: so also the Holy Spirit, by the participation of Himself, may make those who believe good and holy; and from this, it may also be taught that He is of the one substance with the Father and the Son. It is said in the Psalms to the Lord: "Thy good Spirit shall lead me into the right land." But we know that in certain exemplars it is written: "Thy Holy Spirit." Furthermore, in Esdras, He is called the good Spirit without any ambiguity: "Thou gave Thy good Spirit, that Thou mightest make them understand." But that the Father sanctifies, the Apostle writes, saying: "May the God of peace sanctify you perfect (27)." And the Savior says: "Holy Father, sanctify them in truth, for Thy word is truth." Saying clearly: In Me (who am Thy Word and Thy truth), sanctify them by faith and by my companionship. It is said also elsewhere that God is good: "No one is good, except one God." We also showed above that the Son sanctifies, with Paul concurring in the same words: "For both He who sanctifies, and they who are sanctified, are all out of one." Signifying Christ as the One who sanctifies, and those who are sanctified as those who are able to say: "Christ is made unto us wisdom from God, and justice, and sanctification." Indeed, He is also called the Spirit of sanctification. Whence it is said to Him: "And all are sanctified under Thy hands, and are under Thee." Our Lord Jesus Christ is good, and He was generated from the good Father, and we read concerning Him: "Confess to the Lord, for He is good." But let them confess to Him who pray to Him either for the remission of sins or give thanks to His clemency for the benefits bestowed. The Holy Spirit also sanctifies those whom He deigns to fill, as has already been demonstrated above, when we showed that He is capable of being participated in and being taken by many at once. And now, in the present testimony of Paul, He is shown to be the bestower of sanctification, in that D "the Lordly Man" can be defended in some manner, because indeed someone can say that "the Lordly Man" is said by reason of the human nature, which this name "man" signifies, but not by reason of the person.
We must, however, also give thanks to God always for you, beloved brethren of the Lord, because God chose us as firstfruits for salvation, in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit and in the faith of the truth. For in this passage also, the gifts of God are implied in the Spirit, since through the sanctification of the Spirit, faith and truth are likewise possessed.
54. Since, therefore, we have truly and piously said these things, the word for sanctification and goodness is rightly referred to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, just as the appellation of "Spirit" itself also is. For the Father is also called Spirit, as where it is said: "God is Spirit"; and the Son is Spirit: "The Lord," he says, "is Spirit." But the Holy Spirit is always designated by the title of Holy Spirit, not because the name "Spirit" is used only by association with the Father and the Son, but because they possess one nature and one name. But since the word "Spirit" signifies many things, we must briefly enumerate the things to which its name is applied. "Spirit" is also called wind, as in Ezekiel: "But you shall scatter the third part into the spirit," that is, into the wind. But if you wish to understand that according to the history which is written, "In a violent spirit you shall shatter the ships of Tharsis," nothing else is understood there by "spirit" than wind. Furthermore, Solomon, among many, received this gift also from God, to know the violence of spirits; demonstrating that he had received nothing else in this than to know the rapid blasts of the winds, and by what causes their nature consists. "Spirit" is also called the soul, as in the Epistle of James: "As your body is dead without the spirit," and the rest. For most clearly here "spirit" is called nothing else but the soul. According to which understanding, Stephen also, calling his soul a spirit, says: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." That, too, which is said in Ecclesiastes: "Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward, and the spirit of the beast goes downward?" One must consider whether the souls of animals are called spirits. It is also said, apart from the soul and apart from our own spirit, that there is another spirit in man, about which Paul writes: "For who among men knows the things of a man, unless the spirit of man which is in him?" For if anyone should wish to contend that the soul is signified here by "spirit," who will be the man whose thoughts, and arcana, and hidden secrets of the heart, a man does not know A if one wishes to understand these things as pertaining to the body alone, it is most foolish.
55. But if he relies on subtle fraud while attesting these scriptures to the Holy Spirit, if he carefully considers the words themselves, he will cease to assert falsehood. For it is written thus: "For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of man which is in him? So also the things that are of God, no one knows, except the Spirit of God." For as another is man, and another is God, so also the spirit of man, which is in him, is separated from the Spirit of God, which is in him: which we have frequently shown to be the Holy Spirit. But also in another place the same Apostle, distinguishing the Spirit of God from our spirit, says: "The Spirit itself bears witness to our spirit," B signifying this, that the Spirit of God, that is, the Holy Spirit, bears witness to our spirit, which we have now said to be the spirit of man. To the Thessalonians also: "Your whole," he says, "spirit, and soul, and body." For as the soul is one thing, and the body another: so the spirit is distinct from the soul, which is specially called by its own name in its place. Concerning which he also prayed that it might be preserved whole with the soul and the body, because it is incredible, and indeed blasphemous, for the Apostle to pray that the Holy Spirit be preserved whole, who can receive neither diminution C nor increase. Regarding our human spirit, therefore, as we have said, the discourse of the Apostle stands witness.
56. Also, the supernal rational virtues, which Scripture is wont to call angels and powers, are named by the word "spirit," as there: "who makes your angels spirits"; and elsewhere: "Are they not all ministering spirits?" I think that what is written in the Acts of the Apostles is also referred to this sense: "The Spirit of the Lord snatched away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more," that is, the angel of the Lord lifting Philip on high, transferred him to another place. Other rational creatures, too, which by their own will flow from good into evil, are called evil spirits and unclean spirits; as there: "But when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man," and in the subsequent verses: "He takes seven other spirits more wicked than himself." Demons in the Gospels are also called spirits. But this also is to be noted: that "spirit" is never signified as contrary without some addition, such as "unclean spirit" and "spirit of a demon"; but those which are holy spirits are called simply "spirit" without any addition D.
for example, "the good, holy one," and the other similar things, of which we touched upon slightly a little before, and which denotes the will of man and the aim of the soul. For the Apostle, wishing not only in deed but also in mind for the virgin to be holy—that is, not only in body but also in the internal movement of the heart—says: "That she may be holy in body and in spirit," signifying the works of the will by "spirit" and "body." Consider whether this same thing is meant in Isaiah in what is written: "And they who err in spirit shall understand." For those who, through an error of judgment, think one thing instead of another to be good, shall receive understanding, so that their error may be corrected, and that in place of evil things they may choose those that are right. Also that other: "The only fortitude of your spirit," see if it indicates the same thing. And above all, the term "spirit" in the Holy Scriptures signifies an higher and more mystical intellect, as in that place: "The letter kills, but the spirit gives life," calling the "letter" a simple and manifest narrative according to history, but the "spirit" (which is holy and spiritual) the understanding of what is read. To this sense also conforms the saying: "We are the circumcision, who serve God in spirit and do not put confidence in the flesh." For those who do not cut the flesh by the letter, but circumcise the heart by the spirit, taking away all its superfluity—which is close to the generation and akin to it—these are truly circumcised in spirit, Jews in the hidden place, and true Israelites in whom there is no guile. Those who, passing beyond the shadows and images of the Old Testament, worship the true Father in spirit and truth: in spirit, because they have transcended corporal and base things; in truth, because leaving behind the types, shadows, and examples, they have come to the very substance of truth; and, as we have already said, the base and corporal simplicity of words being despised, they have reached a spiritual knowledge of the law.
58. While these things regarding how many meanings the word "spirit" might signify were touched upon, at its proper time, if Christ grants it, we shall discuss what each one signifies. Sometimes, however, the Spirit is called our Lord Jesus Christ—that is, the Son of God. "For the Spirit of wisdom is benign." And in another place: "The Lord is the Spirit," as we have said before, where we also added this: "God is Spirit," not according to a mere communion of name, but according to a fellowship of nature and substance. For since it happens that those who have a different substance are sometimes designated by a common term, and these things are called homonyms, so among those whose nature and substance are the same, together with the community of the term, there is linked an equality of nature, and it is the discipline of the dialecticians to call these synonyms. Therefore, the term "Spirit," and whatever other thing is of the Trinity, is accustomed to be used as synonyms.
59. Furthermore, we have necessarily come down to these things, so that because the appellation "spirit" is frequently sprinkled throughout the Scriptures with divine references, we may not slip in the name, but receive each one according to the variety of the passages and understandings. Therefore, with all study and diligence, by contemplating the term "Spirit"—where and how it has been termed—let us crush the sophistries and fraudulent snares of those who assert that the Holy Spirit is a creature. For reading in the Prophet, "I am he who establishes the thunder, and creates the Spirit," they, through ignorance of the manifold nature of language in this part, thought that the Holy Spirit was demonstrated by this term, while in the present context the name "spirit" sounds like "wind." Likewise, hearing in Zechariah that the Lord spoke, that He Himself is the one who "fashions the spirit of man in him," they thought that the Holy Spirit was signified in this chapter also, not noticing that the appellation "spirit" signifies the soul of man or the mind (which we have already said is the third thing in man). Therefore, as we have prefaced, let us consider how each thing was said, lest perhaps through ignorance we fall into the abyss of error. For while in other matters an error arising from the joining of terms brings confusion and shame to him who has erred, falling from heavenly and divine things to base ones leads to eternal punishment and the abyss—especially when, once deceived, one refuses to recover his senses but impudently defends his error. It was also fitting, and the magnitude of the volume required, that the discourse should receive an end.
60. But because there lies a question regarding those things which we disputed above—which for that reason we then passed over, lest it break the thread of the sermon and impious contention be placed in the midst of pious preaching—I think it necessary to answer the proposition, and leave it to the judgment of the reader what he thinks about these matters. Since, therefore, it is argued above that no creature can fill the soul or mind of man according to substance, except the Trinity alone (because only according to operation, and the error of the will, or virtue, is the mind filled with those things which are created), our question has arisen, as if solving the sentence, that a created substance, which in the Scriptures is called Satan, enters into some, and is said to fill the heart of some. For as to him who, of the price of the field sold, kept back half for himself while professing otherwise, it was said by the Apostle Peter: "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart?" And of Judas the Saviour Himself speaks, that there entered into him Satan. To which it must be answered afterward.
Let us now dispute against what is written, "Why has Satan filled your heart?" A namely, how Satan fills the mind and the principal part of the heart of any man, not by entering into him and into his sense, and, if I may say so, entering the threshold of the heart—since this power belongs to the Trinity alone—but as a certain crafty, wicked, and deceitful impostor, he draws the human soul toward himself, toward the affections of malice, through the thoughts and incentives of vices, of which he himself is full. Moreover, Elymas the sorcerer is also written of as "a son of the devil," subsisting according to malice and wickedness, full of all deceit and malice, with "Satan as his father," turning this will in him, as it were, from the habit of vices into a nature. B Therefore, the Apostle Paul, rebuking and correcting him, says: "O full of all iniquity and all deceit, you son of the devil, enemy of all righteousness of God!" For because he was crafty and cunning, he had taken into himself all the deceit of fraud, [and] he is called a son of the devil, because he himself filled his own principal part with fraud, iniquity, and all malice, so inciting and deceiving him that Satan himself was thought to have filled his soul and to dwell within the very one for whom he had prepared himself as a minister and servant for all the deceits of his own perversity.
61. But as to what we proposed C regarding the example of how Satan had entered into Judas, this must be said: The devil, observing by certain movements and signs of operations towards which the heart of Judas was most prone in its vices, discovered that he lay open to the snares of avarice; and having found the door of cupidity, he sent into his mind [the thought of] how he might receive the money he desired, and through the occasion of gain, become the betrayer of his Master and Saviour—exchanging silver for piety and receiving the price of wickedness from the Pharisees and Jews. This occasion of thought, therefore, gave place to Satan, so that, entering into his heart, he filled it with the worst will. He entered, therefore, not according to substance, but according to operation, because "to enter into someone" belongs to the uncreated nature, which may be participated in by many. The devil, therefore, is not participable; he is not a creator, but subsists as a creature. Whence, being also convertible and mutable, he fell away from holiness and virtue. We said above, D that that which is taken by participation is incorruptible and immutable, and consequently eternal. But that which can be changed is corruptible, and exists as something being and having a beginning. Moreover, that [creature] which is corruptible is both in the past and in the future; it is not, therefore, as some think, that the devil fills anyone by participation of nature or substance, or becomes his inhabitant, but he is believed to dwell in him whom he has filled through fraudulent dealing, deception, and malice. This fallacy, indeed, he also practiced upon the elders who had turned themselves into cruelty against Susanna, filling their souls with the fire of lust and the late pleasure of old age. For it is written: "And the two elders came, full of wicked thought." With these snares he filled also the whole people of the Jews, the prophet saying concerning them: "Woe, sinful nation, a people full of sins, a wicked seed, unrighteous children." For the devil is a wicked seed, and his children, on account of iniquity and fullness, are called sinners. But if, by those who are named his children in the Scriptures, he is not caught [or: named] according to participation of substance—since it has been frequently shown that this is impossible in creatures—nor can anyone else catch him by participation of substance, but only by the assumption of his most fraudulent will. For we have said that he has operation and pursuits, not only of good works but also of evil ones, within creatures; but that the nature and substance of the Trinity alone can enter into others.
62. Abundantly, as I think, has the proposed question been met. But because it seems inept and foolish to respond to absurdities, and if anything else has rushed into the mouths of the impious, to wish to dissolve it—for it is not so much impiety to propose wicked things as it is to wish to treat of wicked things with an opponent—therefore I pass over that which they are accustomed to boast of, proclaiming with sacrilegious audacity against us: If the Holy Spirit is not created, is He either the brother of God the Father, or the uncle of the only-begotten Jesus Christ, or the Son of Christ, or the grandson of God the Father, or is He the Son of God Himself? And then the only-begotten Lord Jesus Christ will no longer be [the only-begotten], since He would have another brother. O miserable and wretched ones, not perceiving that concerning incorporeal and invisible things, it is not permitted to dispute according to the nature of corporeal and visible things! "Brother" or "uncle," "grandson" or "son" are names of bodies and vocabularies of human weakness. The Trinity, however, surpasses all these designations. And whenever it falls into any of these, it does not speak of its own nature with our names and incongruous terms.