Letters to Serapion on the Holy Spirit 1 part 3/5

But that which does not partake of life, but is itself partaken and quickens the creatures, what kinship has it with the things that have come to be? Or how could it at all be one of the creatures, which in it are quickened by the Word? The Spirit is called an anointing (chrism), and it is a seal.

For John writes:

"And as for you, the anointing which you received from him abides in you."

"And you have no need that anyone teach you;

but as his anointing, his Spirit, teaches you concerning all things." And in the prophet Isaiah it is written:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me." And Paul says:

"In whom also having believed, you were sealed unto the day of redemption." But the creatures are sealed and anointed with this, and are taught concerning all things.

But if the Spirit is the anointing and the seal, with which the Word anoints and seals all things;

what likeness or peculiarity is there of the anointing and the seal to the things anointed and sealed? Therefore in this respect also it could not be one of all things.

For the seal could not be of the things sealed, nor the anointing of the things anointed;

but this is proper to the Word who anoints and seals.

For the anointing has the fragrance and breath of him who anoints, and those who are anointed, partaking of it, say:

"We are a sweet savour of Christ"; and the seal has the form of Christ who seals, and those who are sealed partake of this, being conformed according to it, as the Apostle says:

"My little children, of whom I travail again in birth until Christ be formed in you." And being thus sealed, we fitly become also partakers of the divine nature, as Peter said, and thus all creation partakes of the Word in the Spirit.

And through the Spirit we are all said to be partakers of God;

for "the temple of God is holy, which temple you are." But if the Holy Spirit were a creature, there could be in it no participation of God for us;

but rather we should be joined to a creature, and become alien from the divine nature, as in no way partaking of it.

But now, since we are said to be partakers of Christ and partakers of God, it is shown that the anointing and the seal in us is not of the nature of the things that have come to be, but of the nature of the Son, who through the Spirit that is in him joins us to the Father.

For this John, as has been said before, teaching, wrote:

"By this we know that we abide in God, and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit." But if by participation in the Spirit we become partakers of the divine nature, anyone would be mad to say that the Spirit is of the created nature, and not of the nature of God.

But if it deifies, there is no doubt that its nature is of God.

And still more plainly, for the overthrow of this heresy, it is sung in the hundred and third psalm, as we said before:

"You will take away their spirit, and they shall fail, and shall return to their dust.

You will send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you will renew the face of the earth." And Paul writes to Titus:

what likeness or kinship has the Creator to the creatures? Or how at all could that be a creature, in which all things are created? For upon such blasphemy there follows also the blasphemy against the Son;

so that those who say the Spirit is a creature must say that the Word also, through whom all things are created, is a creature.

The Spirit is and is called the image of the Son;

for "whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son." Therefore, since the Son is, even according to them, confessed not to be a creature, neither could his image be a creature.

For whatever the image is, such of necessity must he be also whose image it is.

Whence fitly and suitably the Word is confessed not to be a creature, being the image of the Father;

therefore he who numbers the Spirit among the creatures will assuredly number the Son also among them, blaspheming in this also against the Father by reason of the blasphemy against his image.

Therefore the Spirit is other than the creatures, and has rather been shown to be proper to the Son, and not alien from God.

And consider also that clever question of theirs;

for even if the Spirit was not called Son in the Scriptures, but the Spirit of God, yet it is spoken of as in God himself and from God himself, as the Apostle wrote.

But if the Son, because he is from the Father, is proper to his substance, of necessity the Spirit also, which is said to be from God, must be proper according to substance to the Son.

Indeed, since the Lord is Son, the Spirit itself is called the Spirit of adoption (sonship).

And again, since the Son is wisdom and truth, it is written that the Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom and of truth.

Again, the Son is the power of God, and the Lord of glory;

and the Spirit is called the Spirit of power, and the Spirit of glory, the Scripture so speaking in each case;

Paul writing to the Corinthians:

"For if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory"; and in another place:

"For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear;

but you received the Spirit of adoption"; and again:

"God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying:

Abba, Father." And Peter wrote:

"If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you;

for the Spirit of glory and of power, even the Spirit of God, rests upon you." And the Lord said that the Spirit is the Spirit of truth and the Comforter;

from which it is shown that in it the Trinity is perfect.

But that which joins the creation to the Word could not itself be of the creatures;

and that which makes the creation sons could not be alien from the Son;

since then it would be necessary to seek another Spirit, in order that this one too might be joined to the Word in that other.

The Spirit, then, is not of the things that have come to be, but is proper to the Godhead of the Father, in whom the Word also deifies the things that have come to be.

And that in which the creation is deified could not be outside the Godhead of the Father.

And that the Spirit is above the creation, and is other than the nature of the things that have come to be, but is proper to the Godhead, is possible to perceive again also from this.

The Holy Spirit is unchangeable and unalterable;

for he says, "A holy Spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and will depart from thoughts that are without understanding." And Peter says:

"in the incorruptibility of a meek and quiet spirit"; and again in Wisdom:

"For your incorruptible Spirit is in all things." And if no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God which is in him; and if there is not with God, as James said, variation or shadow of turning; then the Holy Spirit, being in God, would fitly be unchangeable and unalterable and incorruptible.

But the nature of the things that have come to be and of the created things is changeable, inasmuch as it is outside the substance of God, and has its subsistence out of nothing;

for "every man," he says, "is a liar." And, "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."

"And the angels which kept not their own principality, but left their own habitation, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." And in Job:

"If he puts no trust in his holy angels, and against his angels he devises something perverse;

and the stars are not pure in his sight." And Paul writes:

"Do you not know that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?" But indeed we have also heard that the devil, who was in the midst of the cherubim, and became a seal of likeness, fell from heaven like lightning.

But if the creatures have such a nature, and such things are written concerning angels;

while the Spirit is the same and unalterable, and is of the Son's unchangeableness, remaining ever with him unchangeable;

and is the image of the Word, and proper to the Father.

Again, the Spirit of the Lord has filled the world;

"Whither shall I go from your Spirit?" And again it is written in Wisdom:

"For your incorruptible Spirit is in all things." But all created things are in their several places: the sun, the moon, and the stars in the firmament, the clouds in the air;

and for men he set the bounds of the nations;

and the angels are sent forth to minister;

"And the angels came to present themselves before the Lord," as it is written in Job;

and the patriarch Jacob dreamed;

and, "behold, a ladder set up on the earth, whose top reached to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending on it." But if the Spirit fills all things, and is present in the Word in the midst of all, while the angels are inferior to him, and where they are sent, there they are present;

it is therefore beyond doubt that the Spirit is neither of the things that have come to be, nor at all an angel, as you say, but is above the nature of the angels.

For from these things again one might see that the Holy Spirit is partaken and does not partake (for one must not shrink from saying the same things);

for he 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, and have tasted the good word of God," and so on.

But the angels and the other creatures are partakers of the Spirit itself;

for on this account these can also fall away from that of which they have partaken;

but the Spirit is ever the same;

for it does not belong to those who partake, but all things partake of it.

But if this is ever the same and is partaken, while the creatures are partakers of it;

then it is neither an angel nor at all a creature, but is proper to the Word, by whom it is given and partaken by the creatures;

for otherwise it is time for them to say that the Son also is a creature, of whom we all have become partakers in the Spirit.

And again, the Holy Spirit is one;

for the angels are a thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand;

and there are many luminaries, and thrones, and dominions, and heavens, and cherubim, and seraphim, and many archangels;

and, in a word, the creatures are not one, but all are many and diverse.

But if the Holy Spirit is one, while the creatures are many, and the angels many;

what likeness has the Spirit to the things that have come to be? And it is not unclear that the Spirit is not of the many, nor is an angel, but, being one, or rather being proper to the Word who is one, and proper to God who is one, it is also consubstantial.

These things, then, even taken by themselves alone, said concerning the Holy Spirit, show that it has nothing in common nor anything proper in nature and substance with the creatures, but is other than the things that have come to be, and is proper and not alien to the substance and Godhead of the Son, by reason of which, being also of the holy Trinity, it puts to shame their senselessness.

But let us, in addition to these things, also consider the very tradition and teaching and faith of the catholic Church from the beginning, which the Lord gave, the apostles preached, and the fathers kept.

For on this the Church is founded, and he who falls away from it could not be, nor any longer be called, a Christian.

There is, then, a Trinity, holy and perfect, confessed as God in Father and Son and Holy Spirit, having nothing alien or external mingled with it, nor composed of a Creator and a created thing, but wholly the maker and creator;

and it is like unto itself and indivisible in nature, and one is its activity.

For the Father does all things through the Word in the Holy Spirit;

and thus the unity of the holy Trinity is preserved;

and thus one God is preached in the Church, who is over all, and through all, and in all. Over all, as Father, as beginning, and fountain;

and through all, through the Word;

and in all, in the Holy Spirit.

And it is a Trinity not in name only and in semblance of expression, but in truth and in real existence a Trinity.

For just as the Father is "he who is," so also "he who is" and over all is God, his Word.

And the Holy Spirit is not non-existent, but truly exists and subsists.

And the catholic Church holds neither less than these things, lest it fall into the present Jews according to Caiaphas, and into Sabellius;

nor does it conceive more, lest it be rolled into the polytheism of the Greeks.

And that this is the faith of the Church, let them learn how the Lord, sending forth the apostles, charged them to lay this as a foundation for the Church, saying:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." And the apostles, going forth, taught thus;

and this is the preaching unto all the Church that is under heaven.

Since, then, the Church has this foundation of the faith, let those men tell us again and answer:

Is it a Trinity, or a duality? If, then, it is a duality, let the Spirit be numbered by you among the creatures.

But such a notion of yours is not into one God, who is over all and through all and in all. For you do not have the "in all," since you divide and alienate the Spirit from the Godhead;

and your perfecting, which you suppose you accomplish in holding such views, is not whole, when it comes to be unto deity.

For a creature is mingled with it;

and you too, like the Arians and the Greeks, deify the creation along with the God who created it through his own Word—

the Spirit being treated as a creature, while you nevertheless rank it into the Trinity.

And what is your madness, that you should devise injustice against God, that not all the angels, nor all the creatures, but one out of these is numbered with God and his Word? For according to you, the Spirit being once an angel and a creature, yet ranked into the Trinity, it would be necessary that not one, but all the created angels should be ranked with it;

and there would no longer be a Trinity, but some innumerable multitude of deity;

so that your supposed perfecting, again divided here and there, would become unstable through its multiplicity.

For such are the ends of you and of the Arians, who reason against the Godhead, and serve the creation beside the God who created all things.

Such absurdities, then, confront you from saying that it is a duality.

But if it is a Trinity, as indeed it is, and has been shown to be indivisible and not unlike;

then of necessity its holiness is one, and its eternity is one, and the nature of its unchangeableness.

For just as the faith delivered to us is one, and this joins us to God, while he who takes away anything of the Trinity, and is baptized in the name of the Father alone, or in the name of the Son alone, or in Father and Son apart from the Spirit, receives nothing, but remains empty and imperfect, both he and the one who supposes he gives;

for the perfecting is in the Trinity;

so he who divides the Son from the Father, or brings the Spirit down among the creatures, has neither the Son nor the Father, but is godless and worse than an unbeliever, and anything rather than a Christian.

For just as the baptism given in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is one, and there is one faith into it, as the Apostle said;

so the holy Trinity, being the same as itself, and united with itself, has in itself nothing of the things that have come to be;

and this is the indivisible unity of the Trinity, and one is the faith into it.

But if, according to your Tropici's invention, it is not so, but you have dreamed up that the Holy Spirit is a creature;

then your faith is no longer one, nor is there one baptism, but two;

one into Father and Son;

the other into an angel that is a creature;

and nothing of yours is any longer secure or true.

For what fellowship is there between a created thing and the Creator? Or what unity between the lower creatures and the Word who created them? Knowing this, the blessed Paul does not divide the Trinity, as you do, but teaching its unity, wrote to the Corinthians concerning spiritual gifts, and sums up all things into one God the Father, saying:

"and there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord;

and there are diversities of workings, but the same God who works all things in all." For the things which the Spirit distributes to each, these are supplied from the Father through the Word.

For all things that are the Father's are the Son's;

wherefore the things given by the Son in the Spirit are the gifts of the Father.

And when the Spirit is in us, the Word also who gives it is in us, and in the Word is the Father;

and thus is fulfilled the saying, "I and the Father will come, and make our abode with him," as has been said.

For where the light is, there also is the effulgence;

and where the effulgence is, there also is its activity and luminous grace.

And this again, teaching, Paul wrote once more to the Corinthians, even in his second Epistle, saying:

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all." For the grace and gift given in the Trinity is given from the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.

For just as the grace given is from the Father through the Son, so there could be no communion of the gift in us except in the Holy Spirit.

For partaking of it, we have the love of the Father, and the grace of the Son, and the communion of the Spirit itself.

Therefore from these things also the one activity of the Trinity is shown.

For the Apostle does not signify that the things given are different and divided, as if from each separately;

but that the things given are given in the Trinity, and all things are from one God.

That, then, which is not a creature, but is united to the Son as the Son is united to the Father, which is glorified together with the Father and the Son, and is confessed as God together with the Word, and works the things which the Father works through the Son—how does he who calls it a creature not openly act impiously against the Son himself? For there is nothing that does not come to be and is not wrought through the Word in the Spirit.

This also is sung in the Psalms:

"By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the breath of his mouth all their power." And in the hundred and forty-seventh psalm:

"He shall send forth his Word, and shall melt them;

his Spirit shall blow, and the waters shall flow." And we were justified also, as the Apostle said, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. For the Spirit is indivisible from the Word.

Indeed, when the Lord says, "I and the Father will come," the Spirit comes in together, to dwell in us no otherwise than as the Son does, since Paul writes to the Ephesians:

"That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts." And when the Son is in us, the Father also is, the Son saying:

Now, since the Scripture says, "And the word of the Lord came to such-and-such a prophet," it is shown that he prophesies in the Holy Spirit.

For in Zechariah it is written:

"But receive my words and my statutes, all that I command by my Spirit to my servants the prophets." And then, a little after, accusing the people, he said:

"And they made their heart disobedient, that they should not hearken to my laws and my words, which the Lord Almighty sent forth by his Spirit, by the hand of his former prophets." And Peter said in the Acts:

"Brethren, the Scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before." And the apostles in common cried out thus:

"Well spoke the Holy Spirit by Isaiah the prophet to your fathers." And he wrote to Timothy:

When, therefore, the prophecy was being fulfilled, "I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh," Paul said:

"according to the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ unto me"; and to the Corinthians he wrote:

"Or do you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me?" But if it was Christ who spoke in him, it is plain that it was Christ's Spirit that spoke in him;

for indeed, since Christ spoke in him, he said again in the Acts:

"And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there;

save that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me." Whence, if the saints say:

"Thus says the Lord," they speak no otherwise than in the Holy Spirit;

and speaking in the Spirit, they say these things in Christ;

and if Agabus also in the Acts says:

"Thus says the Holy Spirit"; it is no otherwise than that, the Word having come to him, the Spirit supplied him to speak in him and to testify the things that awaited Paul at Jerusalem.

Indeed, when the Spirit again testified to Paul, the same Christ spoke in him, so that the testimony which comes from the Spirit is the Word's.

When the Word sojourned in the Virgin Mary, the Spirit came in together with him, and the Word in the Spirit formed and fitted the body to himself, desiring to join and to offer through himself the creation to the Father, and to reconcile all things in himself, having made peace for the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth. Harmoniously, then, it is shown from the divine Scriptures that the Holy Spirit is not a creature, but is proper to the Word and to the Godhead of the Father;

for thus the teaching of the saints is gathered into the holy and indivisible Trinity, and this is the one faith of the catholic Church;

but the irrational myth-making of the Tropici is at variance with the Scriptures, and agrees with the irrationality of the Arian madmen;

and it is likely that they thus dissemble for the sake of deceiving the simple.

But thanks be to the Lord that, as you write, they did not escape notice while cloaking themselves with their pretended controversy against the Arians;

for indeed they were hated even by those, because they say only the Spirit, and not also the Word, is a creature;

and they were condemned by all as truly fighting against the Spirit (pneumatomachi), and presently becoming dead, being desolate and void of the Spirit.

For according to the blessed Apostle, being natural men, they were not able to receive the things of the Spirit of God, because these are spiritually discerned;

but those who hold the things of the truth discern all things, while they themselves are discerned by no one, having within themselves the Lord, who reveals to them in the Spirit both himself and, through himself, the Father.

I, then, although dwelling in the desert, yet because of the shamelessness of those who have turned aside from the truth, taking no heed of those who wish to mock at the weakness and lowliness of the demonstration through words, having written through a few things, have sent them to your reverence, earnestly beseeching that, on reading these, you would correct some things, and pardon the things that have been weakly said.

For according to the apostolic faith delivered to us from the fathers, I have delivered it, having devised nothing from outside, but what I learned, that I have inscribed, in agreement with the holy Scriptures.

For this also is in agreement with the things previously declared, for confirmation, from the holy Scriptures.

And it has not been devised from outside, but the Lord Jesus Christ himself, through her, taught the Samaritan woman, and through her us, the perfection of the holy Trinity, being indivisible and one Godhead.

The Truth itself bears witness, as he says to the Samaritan woman:

"Believe me, woman, that the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth;

for the Father seeks such to worship him."

"Send forth your light and your truth." The true worshippers, then, worship the Father, but in spirit and in truth, confessing the Son and in him the Spirit;

for the Spirit is inseparable from the Son, as the Son is inseparable from the Father.

The Truth itself bears witness, saying:

"I will send to you the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, whom the world cannot receive"—that is, those who deny that it is from the Father in the Son.

We ought, then, in imitation of the true worshippers, to confess and to run to the truth.

But if, even after these things, they should neither be willing to learn nor be able to understand;

Let them at last cease from their blasphemies, and not divide the Trinity, lest they be divided from life itself;

and let them not number the Holy Spirit among created things, lest, as the Pharisees of old attributed the works of the Spirit to Beelzebul, so these also, daring the same things, may here and hereafter undergo the unforgivable punishment together with those men.

For my part I thought that, even so, I had written but little;

and I blamed myself for great weakness, as one unable to write as much as it is permitted to men to say against those who are impious toward the Holy Spirit.

But since, as you write, some of the brethren have asked that these things too be abridged, so that they may have ready at hand, even in few words, both to give an answer to those who inquire about the faith that is in us, and to refute the impious;

I did this also with confidence, knowing that having a good conscience, if anything has been omitted even in these, you will fill it up.

The Arians, turning in upon themselves and conceiving nothing beyond what is outside themselves, like the Sadducees, received the God-inspired Scripture by human reasonings.

Hearing, then, that the Son is the Wisdom, the Radiance, and the Word of the Father, they are wont to add:

“How can this be?” — as though that could not exist which they themselves are unable to conceive.

For then it is high time for them to reason in like manner about the universe as well:

How can the creation, which once was not, come into being? Or how can dust of the earth be fashioned into a rational man? Or how can the corruptible become incorruptible? Or how has God founded the earth upon the seas and prepared it upon the rivers? And then they would go on to say among themselves:

“for tomorrow we die” — so that, evidently, as they themselves perish, the madness of their heresy may perish with them.

Such, then, is the mortal and corruptible mind of the Arians;

but the word of truth, which it would have been fitting for them also to ponder, is this:

If God is a fountain, and light, and Father, it is not lawful to say either that the fountain is dry, or that the light is without radiance, or that God is without His Word, lest God be without wisdom, without word, and without light.

Since therefore the Father is eternal, the Son also must of necessity be eternal;

for whatever we conceive in the Father, it is beyond doubt that these same things are in the Son also, since the Lord Himself says:

“All things that the Father has are Mine, and all that is Mine is the Father's.”

The Father, then, is eternal;

for through Him the ages came to be.

Of necessity the Son also is, who is over all, God blessed forever.

It is not lawful to say of the Father, “There was a time when He was not”;

it is unlawful to say of the Son, “There was a time when He was not.”

The Father is Almighty;

the Son also is Almighty, as John says:

“He who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” The Father is light, the Son is radiance and true light.

The Father is true God, the Son is true God;

for thus John wrote:

“We are in Him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.

This is the true God and eternal life.” And in general there is nothing that the Father has which is not the Son's.

Since the things of the Father are these same things in the Son, and again these same things are conceived in the Father.