Letters to Serapion on the Holy Spirit 1 part 2/5

and He is ministered to by an angel, but is undivided from the Godhead, and is the Word's own.

Since, if they make a pretext of the apostolic saying—because “the elect angels” are mentioned after Christ—let them say which of all these is the one ranked with the Trinity. For surely they are not all one in number;

or which of them is the one who came down into the Jordan in the form of a dove? For those who minister are thousands of thousands, and myriads of myriads.

Or why, when the heavens were opened, was it not said, “And there came down one of the elect angels,” but “the Holy Spirit”? Or why does the Lord Himself, when discoursing with the disciples concerning the consummation, in distinguishing say:

“The Son of man shall send forth His angels”? And before these it had been said:

“The angels ministered to Him.” And again He Himself says:

“The angels shall go forth.” But to the disciples, giving, He said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”; and sending them, He said:

“Go, disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” For He did not rank an angel with the Godhead, nor did He join us to Himself and to the Father in a creature, but in the Holy Spirit, whom He Himself, in promising, did not call an angel that He would send, but the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, and receives of Him and is given.

And Moses too, then, knowing that the angels are creatures, but the Holy Spirit is united with the Son and the Father, when God said to him:

“Go, go up hence, you and your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, into the land which I swore to Abraham, and to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying:

“To your seed will I give it”;

“a Canaanite...”—he begs off, saying:

“If You Yourself do not go with us, bring me not up hence.” For he did not wish a creature to lead the people, lest they should learn to serve the creation rather than God who created all things.

Indeed, having begged off from the angel, he besought God Himself to lead them.

And when God had promised and said to him:

“This also that you have spoken, this word, will I do;

“for you have found grace before Me, and I know you above all”—it is written in Isaiah:

“He that brought up out of the earth the shepherd of the sheep;

“where is He that put the Holy Spirit in them, He that led Moses up by His right hand?” And a little after he says:

“The Spirit came down from the Lord, and led them.

“So You led Your people, making for Yourself a name of glory.” Who, from these, does not perceive the truth? For when God promised to lead, behold, He no longer promises to send an angel, but His Spirit, which is above the angels, and it is itself leading the people.

And it is shown that the Spirit is not of the creatures, nor is it an angel, but is above the creation, united with the Godhead of the Father.

For God Himself, through the Word, in the Spirit, was leading the people;

whence also throughout all Scripture He says:

“I brought you up out of the land of Egypt;

“you are witnesses, whether there was a strange god among you besides Me.” And the saints address God:

“You led Your people like sheep”; and, “The Lord led them in hope, and they feared not.” To Him also they ascribe the hymn, saying:

“To Him who led His people through the wilderness, for His mercy endures for ever.” And the great Moses continually relates:

“The Lord your God who goes before your face.” The Spirit of God, therefore, would not be an angel, nor a creature, but proper to His Godhead.

For the Spirit being in the people, God through the Son in the Spirit was in them.

“But let this be so,” they themselves also say;

“why then did the Apostle, after Christ, not name the Holy Spirit, but the elect angels?” One might ask them the very same thing:

for behold, in Isaiah it is written:

“Draw near to Me, and hear these things;

“From the beginning I have not spoken in secret;

“when it came to pass, there was I;

“and now the Lord has sent me, and His Spirit.” And in Haggai:

“And now be strong, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, says the Lord;

“and let all the people of the land be strong, says the Lord;

“and work, for I am with you, says the Lord Almighty, and My Spirit abides in your midst.” And in both these prophets the mention is made only of the Lord and of the Spirit.

What, then, will they say also concerning this? For if, because Paul, having made mention of Christ, was silent concerning the Spirit but mentioned the elect angels, they on this account rank the Spirit among the angels;

it were time for those who light upon these prophetic passages too to reason more boldly even concerning the One passed over in silence.

For whether they say the “Lord” to be the Son, what would they say concerning the Father? Or whether they say the Father, what would they say concerning the Son? For may it not be that anyone should even reckon the blasphemy that follows according to them;

for they must say either that He does not exist, or else number among the things made the One passed over in silence.

But what would they say, if they should hear also the Lord saying:

“He named a man God”—the Son is this man, whom the unjust judge did not regard? Or, because after God He named the man, is the Son third after the man, and the Holy Spirit fourth? And what then, if they should hear the Apostle also, in the same epistle, again saying:

“I charge you before God who quickens all things, and Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed the good confession, that you keep the commandment without spot, without reproach”—then, because he has now kept silence concerning angels and the Spirit, do they doubt concerning the Spirit, whether it exists, and concerning angels, whether they exist? Yes, they doubt, until they have so practised blaspheming concerning the Spirit.

And if they should hear the Scripture saying in Exodus, “And the people feared the Lord, and believed God, and Moses His servant,” will they then number Moses with God, and after God not understand the Son, but Moses only? And what, if they should hear also the patriarch Jacob blessing Joseph and saying:

“The God who has fed me from my youth until this day;

“the angel who has delivered me out of all evils, bless these children”? Then, because after God he named an angel, is the angel first before the Son, or is the Son numbered with angels? Yes, again they will so understand, having a corrupted heart.

But the apostolic faith is not of such a kind, nor would any Christian at all endure these things.

For the holy and blessed Trinity is indivisible and united in itself;

and when the Father is named, there is present also His Word, and the Spirit that is in the Son.

And if the Son also is named, the Father is in the Son, and the Spirit is not outside the Word.

For there is one grace, from the Father, fulfilled through the Son in the Holy Spirit;

and there is one Godhead, and there is one God, who is over all, and through all, and in all.

And the elect angels he fittingly brought in along with them, in order that—since it was a solemn charge being spoken to the disciple—knowing that, whereas the things spoken are uttered from God through Christ in the Spirit, the angels minister the things from us, watching over the deeds of each, he might guard the exhortations of his teacher, as having those who oversee as witnesses of the things spoken.

Or perhaps it is also on account of those who continually behold the face of the Father who is in the heavens that he now solemnly invokes angels, even for the sake of the little ones in the Church, in order that the disciple, knowing the guardians of the peoples, might not neglect the exhortations of the Apostle.

Such, then, is the sense of the divine oracles, as it appears to me, refuting the blasphemy of the unreasoning men against the Spirit;

but they, having their contentiousness persistent against the truth, as you write, no longer from the Scriptures (for they do not find it there), but belching forth from the abundance of their own heart, again assert:

“If it is not a creature, nor one of the angels, but proceeds from the Father,

“then it too is a Son, and they are two brothers—it and the Word.”

“And if it is a brother, how is the Word only-begotten, or how are they not equal, but the one is named after the Father, and the other after the Son? And how, if it is from the Father, is it not also said to have been begotten, or that it is a Son, but simply 'Holy Spirit'? And if the Spirit is of the Son, then the Father is grandfather of the Spirit.”

Such things do the dishonourable men make sport with, busying themselves and wishing to search out the deep things of God, which no one knows save the Spirit of God—the very One being blasphemed by them;

whether the Father is from a father, and whether another has been begotten together with Him, and there are brothers from one, and what is their name, and who again is the Father and grandfather even of these, and who are the forefathers of those? But they will say there are none.

How then is He Father—let them say—Himself not having come to be from a Father? Or how was He able to have a Son, not having Himself first been begotten a Son? I know that the question is impious;

but it is just to make sport with them who make such sport, that even from such absurdity and impious questioning they may be able to perceive their own folly.

Nor is it fitting in this way to ask concerning the Godhead.

For God is not as man, that anyone should dare to ask human things concerning Him.

To keep silence, then, as I said before, in these matters, and not to take notice of such men, were the proper course;

but lest our silence should furnish them an occasion for shamelessness, let them hear:

Just as it is not possible to speak of a father in the case of the Father, so it is not possible to speak of a brother in the case of the Son.

For of the Father, as has been written above, no other God came to be;

wherefore the Father also is alone and one, the Father of an only and one Son;

and in the case of the Godhead alone do the “Father” and the “Son” stand fast always and abide.

For of men, if anyone is called a father, yet he became the son of another;

and if he is called a son, yet he became the father of another;

so that among men the name of father and of son is not preserved in the strict sense.

Abraham, at any rate, being the son of Terah, became the father of Isaac;

and Isaac, being the son of Abraham, became the father of Jacob;

and in this manner is the nature of men;

and each one being begotten has a part of the father, in order that he too may become the father of another.

But in the case of the Godhead it is not so.

For God is not as man, nor has He a divided nature;

wherefore neither does He beget a Son by being divided, that He too should become the father of another, since neither is He Himself from a Father;

nor is the Son a part of the Father;

wherefore neither does He beget, as He Himself was begotten, but He is whole the image and effulgence of the Whole;

and in the case of the Godhead alone is the Father in the strict sense Father;

and the Son is in the strict sense Son;

and in their case stands fast that the Father is always Father, and the Son always Son.

And just as the Father could never be Son, so the Son could never become Father.

And just as the Father will never cease being alone Father, so the Son will never cease being alone Son.

It is madness, therefore, even at all to think and to say, in the case of the Son, “brother,” and in the case of the Father, the name of “grandfather.”

For neither was the Spirit named in the Scriptures as “son,” lest it should be thought a brother;

nor as son of the Son, lest the Father should be understood as grandfather;

but the Son is called son of the Father, and the Spirit is called Spirit of the Father.

And thus there is one Godhead and faith of the Holy Trinity.

Therefore, even according to this, it is madness to call it a creature.

For if it were a creature, it would not be ranked with the Trinity.

And it is enough to know that the Spirit is not a creature, nor is it numbered among the things that are made;

for nothing alien is mingled with the Trinity, but it is indivisible and like unto itself.

These things suffice for the faithful;

thus far does knowledge reach among men;

up to this point do the cherubim cover with their wings.

But he who seeks beyond these things, and wishes to pry further, disobeys him who says:

"Be not over-wise, lest you be confounded." For the things delivered by faith ought to be apprehended not in human wisdom but in the hearing of faith.

For what discourse will be able worthily to interpret things that are above created nature? Or what hearing at all can comprehend what it is not lawful for men either to hear or to speak? Concerning the things which Paul heard, he spoke thus:

"How untraceable are his ways!"

"For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?" Abraham, at any rate, neither pried nor cross-examined him who spoke, but believed, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness; thus too Moses was called a faithful servant.

If they cannot understand nor believe concerning the indivisible and holy Trinity, let them not on this account distort the truth as well, nor let them say that what they themselves cannot understand cannot even exist.

For they suffer a most absurd thing;

namely, that being unable to understand how the holy Trinity is indivisible, the Arians on the one hand make the Son one with the creation;

while the Tropici on the other hand likewise number the Spirit among created things.

They ought either, if they do not understand at all, to keep silence and not to rank—neither the former the Son, nor the latter the Spirit—with the creatures;

or else to acknowledge what is written, and to join the Son to the Father, and not to divide the Spirit from the Son, that the indivisibility and the true consubstantiality of the holy Trinity may remain.

Having learned these things, they ought not to be presumptuous, nor in their doubting to ask how these things came to be, lest, even if the one questioned be at a loss to answer, they themselves devise wickedness against themselves.

For it is impossible for all created beings, and most of all for us men, to speak worthily concerning things ineffable.

But it is yet more presumptuous, when they cannot speak, to devise upon these matters newer terms beyond those of the Scriptures.

Moreover, such an undertaking is madness, both on the part of him who asks and of him who at all ventures to answer.

For not even concerning created things would anyone who asked in this manner be thought to have a sound mind.

Or let those who speak so glibly about everything dare to answer how the heaven was framed, and out of what matter, and what is its composition; or how the sun, and each of the stars, came to be. But what wonder is it to convict their folly from things on high, when not even how the nature of the timber here below, or the constitution of the waters, or how the formation and structure of living creatures comes to be, is known? But they would not be able to do so, since even Solomon, who shared in wisdom more than all, seeing that it was impossible for men to find out concerning these things, said:

"And he has set the whole age in their heart, so that man cannot find out the work which God has made from the beginning even to the end." Will they then, because they cannot find it out, refuse to confess that these things exist? Yes, they would confess them, having a corrupted understanding.

Therefore one might fitly say to them:

O foolish men and altogether rash, why do you not rather cease prying into the holy Trinity, and only believe that it exists;

having as your teacher in this the Apostle who says:

"For he that comes to God must first believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." For he did not say how he is, but only that he is. But if they will not even thus submit, let them tell how the Father is, that so they may learn how his Word also is.

But it is absurd, they will say, to ask thus concerning the Father.

Then let them hear that it is equally absurd to ask thus concerning his Word.

Since therefore such an undertaking is superfluous and full of madness, let no one ask such things any more, but only learn the things in the Scriptures.

For the examples that are set down in them concerning this are self-sufficient and adequate.

The Father, then, is called a Fountain and Light;

for he says, "They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water." And again in Baruch:

"What is it, O Israel, that you are in the land of your enemies? You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom." And according to John:

"Our God is light." And the Son is also called, in relation to the Fountain, a River;

for "the river of God is full of water"; and in relation to the Light, an Effulgence, as Paul says:

"who, being the effulgence of his glory, and the express image of his substance." Since then the Father is Light, and the Son is his Effulgence (for one must not shrink from saying the same things often, especially concerning these matters), it is possible to behold in the Son also the Spirit, in whom we are enlightened;

for he says, "that he may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened." And when we are enlightened by the Spirit, it is Christ who enlightens in him;

and since the Father is called the Fountain and the Son the River, we are said to drink the Spirit;

for it is written, "We were all made to drink of one Spirit." But being made to drink of the Spirit, we drink Christ;

for "they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them;

and that rock was Christ." And again, since Christ is the true Son, we, in receiving the Spirit, are made sons;

for he says, "You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear;

but you received the Spirit of adoption." And being made sons by the Spirit, it is plain that in Christ we are designated children of God;

for "as many as received him, to them he gave authority to become children of God." Then, since the Father, as Paul said, is alone wise, the Son is his Wisdom;

for "Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God." And since the Son is the Wisdom, we, in receiving the Spirit of wisdom, possess the Son, and in him become wise.

For thus also it is written in the hundred and forty-fifth psalm:

"The Lord looses the prisoners;

the Lord gives wisdom to the blind." And since the Spirit is given to us (for the Saviour said, "Receive the Holy Spirit"), God is in us;

for thus John wrote:

"If we love one another, God abides in us."

"By this we know that we abide in him, and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit." And since God is in us, the Son also is in us, as the Son himself says:

"I and the Father will come, and make our abode with him." Then, since the Son is life—for he says, "I am the life"—we are said to be quickened in the Spirit;

for he says, "He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you." And when we are quickened in the Spirit, Christ himself is said to live in us;

for he says, "I have been crucified with Christ;

yet Christ lives in me." And again, just as the Son said that the works which he did, the Father wrought;

for he says, "The Father that abides in me, he does the works";

"Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me";

"or else believe me for the very works' sake." So too the things which Paul wrought in the power of the Spirit, he said were the works of Christ;

for he says, "I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not wrought through me to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit." Such, then, being the coordination and unity that is in the holy Trinity, who would divide either the Son from the Father, or the Spirit from the Son, or even from the Father himself? Or who would be so rash as to say that the Trinity is unlike and of a different nature within itself, or that the Son is of another essence than the Father, or that the Spirit is alien to the Son? But how can these things be? someone will again ask, inquiring:

how is it that, when the Spirit is in us, the Son is said to be in us, and when the Son is in us, the Father is said to be in us? Or how, when there is a Trinity, is the Trinity signified in one? Or how, when the One is in us, is the Trinity said to be in us? Let him first divide the effulgence from the light, or the wisdom from the wise;

but if he cannot do this, much more is it the venture of madmen to inquire such things concerning God;

for the Godhead is not delivered, as has been said, in demonstration of words, but in faith and in pious reasoning with reverence.

For if even concerning the saving Cross Paul preached not in wisdom of words but in demonstration of spirit and of power, and heard unspeakable words in Paradise which it is not lawful for a man to utter, who can declare concerning the holy Trinity itself? Nevertheless, one will be able to relieve such a difficulty, first by faith, and then also from the things aforesaid—I mean, the image and the effulgence, the fountain and the river, the substance and the express image.

For just as the Son is in the Spirit as in his own image, so also is the Father in the Son.

And the divine Scripture, comforting us to apprehend such things, has also given us such examples, that thus, because of the unbelief of the presumptuous, it might be possible to speak more simply, and to speak without danger, and with allowance to understand, and to believe that the sanctification is one, proceeding from the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.

For just as the Son is only-begotten;

so also the Spirit, being given and sent from the Son, is itself also one and not many, nor one out of many, but alone is itself the Spirit.

For since the Son is one, the living Word, there must be one perfect and full living energy and gift of his, which sanctifies and enlightens, which is said to proceed from the Father, since it shines forth, and is sent, and is given from the Word who is confessed to be from the Father.

Indeed, the Son is sent from the Father;

for he says, "For God so loved the world, that he sent his only-begotten Son." And the Son sends the Spirit;

for he says, "For if I depart, I will send the Comforter." And the Son glorifies the Father, saying:

"Father, I have glorified you"; and the Spirit glorifies the Son;

for he says, "He shall glorify me." And the Son says:

"What I have heard from the Father, these things I speak to the world"; and the Spirit takes of the Son;

for he says, "He shall take of mine, and shall declare it to you."

And the Son came in the name of the Father;

"But the Holy Spirit," says the Son, "whom the Father will send in my name." And since the Spirit has such order and nature toward the Son as the Son has toward the Father, how will he who calls the Spirit a creature not of necessity think the same also concerning the Son? For if the Spirit of the Son is a creature, it would follow that they should say the Word of the Father also is a creature.

For the Arians, imagining such things, have fallen into the Judaism according to Caiaphas.

But if those who speak thus concerning the Spirit do not pretend to hold the opinions of Arius, let them flee from his words also, and not blaspheme against the Spirit.

For just as the Son, who is in the Father, and in whom also the Father is, is not a creature, but is proper to the substance of the Father (for this you also pretend to say);

so also the Spirit, who is in the Son, and in whom also the Son is, it is not lawful to rank with the creatures, nor to divide it from the Word and so render the Trinity imperfect.

Now, concerning the sayings both of the prophet and of the apostle, the meaning of which they have distorted and so deceived themselves, it suffices through these to refute the blasphemy that springs from the ignorance of the Tropici.

But let us now consider also, in themselves, the things said in the divine Scriptures concerning the Holy Spirit, and like approved money-changers let us discern whether the Spirit has anything proper to the creatures, or is proper to God, so that we may say either that it is a creature, or that it is other than the creatures and proper to and one with the Godhead in the Trinity.

Perhaps even thus they may be put to shame, learning how far the words of blasphemy invented by them are out of tune with the divine oracles.

The creatures, then, have come into being out of nothing, having a beginning of their coming to be;

for "in the beginning God made the heaven and the earth and all things in them."

But the Holy Spirit is said to be from God;

for he says, "For no one knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him;

so also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God."

"And we received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God." What kinship, then, from the things aforesaid, has the Spirit with the creatures? For the creatures were not;

but God is he who is, from whom also is the Spirit.

And that which is from God could not be from that which is not, nor a creature, lest, according to them, he also from whom the Spirit is should be thought to be a creature.

Who, then, will endure such foolish men, who themselves also say in their heart that there is no God? For even if, just as no one knows the things of a man except the spirit which is in him, so also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit which is in him;

the Spirit in God, who also searches the deep things of God—must such a one then learn to say that the spirit of man is outside the man himself, and that the Word in the Father is a creature? For from these things he will learn to say so.

Again, the Spirit is and is called the Spirit of holiness and of renewal;

"who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead, even Jesus Christ our Lord." And again he says:

"But you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." And when writing to Titus he said:

"But when the kindness and love toward man of God our Saviour appeared, not by works of righteousness which we did, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that, being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." But the creatures are sanctified and renewed.

"For you will send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created; and you will renew the face of the earth." And Paul also says:

"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit." That, then, which is not sanctified by another, nor partakes of sanctification, but is itself the object partaken, in which also all the creatures are sanctified—how could it be one of all things, proper to those who partake of it? For those who say this must of necessity say also that the Son, through whom all things came to be, is one of all things.

For he says, "He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you." And the Lord is the very Life, and the Author of life, as Peter said;

"The water that I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life."

But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed on him were about to receive. But the creatures, as has been said, are quickened through him.