On the Trinity 1-1 part 8/12

For the one is not two; and the Spirit is neither alien to the essence of the Father, nor cut off from union with the One;

nor does it have any diminution in relation to him, nor is there any other more connatural to itself, or nearer to God;

nor does it tolerate being called a 'number,' since it belongs to the essence of the One, nor being ranked among the things brought into being, seeing that it, together with the Father and the Son, is among those who brought all things into being.

Therefore the one Holy Spirit can be neither unlike the one Father or the one Son, nor like the multitude of spirits.

For just as, there being one God and Father, and one true Son, all of us who are made according to the image, through his goodness and generosity, have been called gods and sons — though we are not so in truth — according to the saying:

'You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High' — so also, there being one and only Holy Spirit of truth, many things are called 'spirits,' though they are not by nature spirits of God.

Not looking, nor carefully considering how they might appear to agree with the theologians in what they say, they do not hesitate to bring forward other harmful assertions as well.

And let no one blame me, before hearing the whole argument, if I call their views harmful.

For one will find that what they utter directly contradicts the judgment of the God-inspired men, who had received from God, as a portion of his gift, the excellence to be distinguished concerning this matter.

whether the Holy Spirit is God, or is the Father, or is the Son;

but if it is none of these, it is not God, just as the other spirits are not either.

Thus, just as the Father is God not because he is a father, but because he is of divine nature, and the Son is God not because he is a son of anyone whatever, but because he is the Word-Son of God and necessarily subsists of the same divine nature — so also the Holy Spirit is God, not because it is simply a spirit, but because it is the one and only Holy Spirit of God, and stands established in the same divine nature, as has already been said.

'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.' We believe that the Only-begotten Word is God equally with the Father, and we worship and serve him;

and we are disposed in the same manner also concerning the Holy Spirit.

For by the very one in whose name we were commanded, in the formula given concerning incorruptible baptism — on which the whole constitution of our way of life and worship depends — we were commanded to rank the Spirit together with the Father and the Son, to worship it together with them, to glorify it together with them, and to serve it.

For this is the rational worship which Paul wrote of in this way:

'that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, your rational service.' And just as, when the Apostle proclaimed as an oracle that God alone is wise and possesses immortality, we believe that the Son likewise possesses immortality and is wise, since he is, in essence, unalterably identical with the Father, and is his Word and, as Scripture writes, eternal life;

so also concerning the Holy Spirit.

For it does not possess immortality and wisdom by grace, that is, as a gift, in the manner of the ministering spirits, but possesses them by nature;

'No one knows the things of the only wise God, except his Spirit.' For if they should concede that these things are not so, they will either misrepresent God the Word, or they will appear to act contrary to the Scriptures.

For nothing is ranked together with the Trinity in one Godhead — neither the other spirits, merely because they are called 'spirits' (not to mention the profane ones), nor men, merely because they are called 'gods.'

But if they should suppose that the following does not stand against them:

'who alone has immortality' — they will not be able, from any source at all, to argue sophistically against the Holy Spirit.

For Paul spoke in this way because the Son is the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, and because the Spirit is inseparably united to him by nature, and is reduced to one Godhead, just as it is also said even among those outside the faith:

'One God, self-begotten father, from whom all these things came to be.'

As, then, Paul wrote concerning the Father, to the Romans, the Galatians, and Timothy:

'God is one' — so also, concerning the Son, John said:

'The only-begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father.' And concerning the Holy Spirit, Paul taught the Corinthians:

and to another gifts of healing in the one Spirit; for oneness is proper to the divine nature, which is not multiplied.

And just as it is written that the Son was begotten, and he himself says in testimony:

'I came forth from the Father'; so it was written, and he himself also said:

'The Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father'—that is, has proceeded.

And just as the Son, being God and Lord, is the Son of God the Lord,

so too the Holy Spirit, being God and Lord, is the Spirit of God the Lord.

And in the manner that the Son is written of as 'Word' because he co-exists with the Father, in the same manner the Holy Spirit too is written of as 'utterance of God,' 'Spirit of his mouth,' and 'breath of the Almighty,' since, subsisting together with him, he shone forth from him;

so that no one might suppose him to be outside the Godhead of the Father or of his Word.

For utterance is proper to the Word, and the Word is proper to the Mind;

'the one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.' And just as the Son is shown to be undifferentiated from the Father in that it is written:

'He who has seen me has seen the Father'; in like manner also the Holy Spirit, through the words in which he says:

...to him, and to the one who reveals him by his own manifestation.

And just as all things came into being through the Son, so too all things were sanctified and empowered by the Spirit.

'Master, who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them;'

who spoke through the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of your servant David. And just as the Only-begotten is shown to be of equal power and likeness to the Father, and possessed of authority, according to what is said:

'Whatever things the Father does, these the Son likewise does'; so too the Spirit of God, according to:

'But all these things the one and the same Spirit works.' And just as Christ said concerning himself:

'No one knew the Father except the Son'; so also concerning the Holy Spirit the like has been said, that:

'The things of God no one has known, except the Spirit of God.' And in the manner that the Son, on account of his office of announcing, was called 'the Messenger of great counsel';

so likewise concerning the Holy Spirit:

'but we received the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things freely given us by God.' And most similar to:

'Christ the firstfruits'—the saying which states:

'and having the firstfruits of the Spirit.' And of equal weight with:

'and may the Lord sanctify you, that you may be sound and blameless unto the day of redemption'—compare:

'that the offering of the Gentiles might become acceptable, sanctified in the Holy Spirit.' And of equal balance with saying:

'he who set me apart from my mother's womb, that through his grace he might reveal his Christ in me'—compare:

'God has revealed it through his Spirit.' And of equal force to saying:

'examine yourselves, whether Christ is in you'—compare the statement:

'now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God.' And equal to this:

'Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?'—with what was written by John:

'if we love one another, God abides in you'

'by this we know that we abide in him and he in us, from his Spirit which he has given us.' And with:

'I and the Father will come, and we will make our dwelling with him.' And just as the Holy Spirit is given through the Father and the Son, according to:

'I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh'; and according to:

'receive the Holy Spirit'; thus through the Holy Spirit Christ also dwells, according as Paul writes to the Ephesians:

'that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in the inner man.' We might take in like and equal manner also:

'the word of the Lord came to such-and-such a prophet'; and:

'thus says the Lord Almighty'—with what was said by Peter in the Acts:

'it was necessary that the scripture be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold'; and with what was said by Paul in Rome to the Jews:

'well did the Holy Spirit speak through Isaiah the prophet'; and with:

'but the Spirit expressly says'; and:

'thus says the Lord Almighty'

the eternal God—with what was proclaimed by Paul:

'who offered himself through the eternal Spirit.' And comparable also to:

'no one can receive the Holy Spirit except from the Lord'; and with:

'no one can say that Jesus Christ is Lord, except in the Holy Spirit.' And the same is also:

'to be led by the Holy Spirit into the truth'—that is, to be led by the Holy Spirit into the true faith—the same as being led by the Master Christ when he ordains:

'baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.' And of equal strength with the saying that states:

'do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?'—with what is written:

'do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.' And of similar wording to:

'you shall send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created'—compare:

'you shall send forth your word, and it shall melt them.' And of equal rank also with saying:

'the Lord bears witness to my soul, that I do not lie'—with what is written:

'the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness concerning me'; and:

'the Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying...' And likened also to the Master's own word which says:

'behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves'—compare:

'so these, sent forth by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia.' And equal to that is what is written:

'if you seek proof of Christ speaking in me'—with what is written, that:

'they said to Paul through the Spirit:'

'do not go up to Jerusalem.' And akin also to:

the Son is eternal life—what was said by him:

'the water which I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life,'

'but this he said concerning the Holy Spirit, whom those who believed in him were about to receive.' And with:

'for we have become partakers of Christ'—compare:

'for it is impossible that those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit...'

'there appeared to the apostles divided tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit'; and what was said by John:

'he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire'—with what was oracularly declared, by Moses:

'our God is a consuming fire'; and by Isaiah:

'behold, the Lord will come like fire.' And it accords with the saying:

'you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the putting off of the body of sins, in the circumcision of Christ'—compare what is written:

Circumcision of heart in the spirit. And is it fitting that the saying of Peter be spoken also concerning God?

'Let each one repent from his wickedness and from the evil way, and let him be baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus, and he shall be saved.' Therefore his Spirit is without variance from God — as is also clear from the fact that the Master spoke to the disciples in these very names:

'Wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard, that John indeed baptized with water unto repentance, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit.' For this signifies nothing other than what his other mystagogy concerning illumination also shows: that the Holy Spirit works and is able to do the very things that the name of the Father and of his Child works and is able to do, since it exists of the same divinity.

The preaching concerning the Son and the Holy Spirit is likewise without variance and equally to be revered, as Paul writes to the Romans:

'For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received...' The following passage has the same import:

'For I dare not speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit of God' — corresponding to:

'The Father who abides in me, he himself does the works.'

'Believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me.' Observe, then, that just as the Father, so also his Spirit abides with Christ, being inseparable in the divine nature;

and that the divine works are wrought in one accord by the ineffable Trinity;

and just as the Father, existing in his own hypostasis, is imaged forth in the Only-begotten, because of the indistinguishable sameness of the divinity — that is, of the essence —

in the same manner the Only-begotten is likewise imaged forth in the one Holy Spirit.

And how many other things are recorded concerning the divine Spirit that do not differ from what is written concerning God the Father and his Only-begotten Son! Some of these are contained in various places of this book, through which the course of the discourse has run.

For will they not, when questioned in turn, still say that Eve is from Adam, and the children from her? And how is it that the latter were recorded as begotten, while she is neither his child nor sister of those born, through an oversight — seeing that it is not possible for the Monad and the incomparable nature, which remains unseen by the mind and does not even endure being set forth by hearing and by words, to be illustrated by any analogy drawn from created things?

For even if some small shadow, as it were, of likeness, in some way,

should be found, the greater part escapes, leaving him who brings forward the analogy cast down somewhere below.

For an example can in no way be [an instance of] identity;

it is safe to say only those things which the Scriptures have taught, suited to our measure.

it is written [to be the Spirit] of God the Father, because, while it is separated in nature from other spirits, it is joined to the Father and to his Son in the account of the essence — as Paul explains, writing to the Corinthians in his first epistle:

'and to another, gifts of healing, by the one Spirit'; and again:

'But all these things the one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each one individually as he wills'; and again:

'we were all made to drink of one Spirit.' And to the Ephesians:

'For through him we both have access, in one Spirit, to the Father.' And again:

'being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit' — that is:

to take the greatest care not to separate it from the supreme Unity and the self-complete essence.

And that it is also named 'word' (rhema), the following passages thus testify:

Paul, writing to the Ephesians, says:

'take up the whole armor of God, and the breastplate of righteousness, and the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word (rhema) of God.' Of this very sword Matthew also made mention, speaking in the person of Christ, when he said:

'I did not come to bring peace, but a sword' — not meaning a literal blade, but the unfailing wisdom of the Holy Spirit, which surpasses peace and cuts through hardened hearts;

'upholding all things by the word of his power.' But by what word? David prophesied:

'By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.' And Paul again says:

'For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God...' And Peter says:

'because all flesh is as grass, and all its glory as the flower of grass;

the grass withers, and the flower falls, and its beauty perishes;

but the word of God endures forever.' In the same manner he sings concerning the Son in Psalm 118:

'Forever, O Lord, your word abides in heaven.' For this passage hands down most mystically many things concerning the highest and most divine hypostases.

Concerning [the fact] that everything proper to divinity is likewise testified of the Holy Spirit, thus:

Thus, then, [the Scriptures] oracularly proclaim concerning the incorrupt and ineffable nature of the Holy Spirit the very things they proclaim concerning God who exercises authority over all as Father, and concerning the Son who is beyond all things and Lord of all — because he is not of a different essence, nor lesser in power and glory.

And none of these attributes is found to belong of itself to any created being.

For whatever [a creature] has, it has as a gift graciously bestowed by the Trinity in one Godhead;

and each thing is by its nature always recognized from the things it is — both what it is, and what it is not — whether it exists by nature as God, or as a creature.

That, contrary to the heretics, it is not the first creature.

For the first creature is in fact Satan.

Creation possesses being, though it did not exist from the beginning.

And it was also shown in [the book of] Job what is the first work of creation among rational beings:

for it names as 'devil' that being which, by its own conduct, falsified its nature.

But nowhere is it written that the Holy Spirit, as the breath of the Almighty, is a creature or has any beginning at all.

For a created thing could not have pre-existed the creative Spirit; and such a notion — disapproved, thankless, and profane — has arisen merely from men's own private opinion, since Scripture neither says that there is a beginning of the divine Spirit, but rather extols it as the Spirit of God and from God, and as divine and holy, nor does it mark off, with respect to the nature of the divine hypostases, a 'first' and a 'thereafter.' What dispute, then, remains concerning their being within the one unbegotten Godhead and in equal honor? Concerning [the fact] that it fills the world and holds all things together: no created thing fills the world, or holds all things together, and is present in all things;

but is [limited], and a determined quantity;

for these things belong to divinity alone.

But the majesty of the Holy Spirit is indissoluble, boundless, and is always everywhere, and through all things, and in all things;

filling the world and holding it together according to his divinity, yet uncontained according to his power, measuring [all things] while itself not being measured.

For God does not give the Spirit by measure, as the Savior says in [the Gospel of] John:

and according to [the book of] Wisdom, which says:

'For you love all things that exist, and abhor none of the things that you have made;'

'for you would not have made anything that you hated.'

'And how would anything have endured, unless you had willed it? Or how would that which was not called into being by you have been preserved? But you spare all things, because all things are yours, O Sovereign Lord who loves the living, and your imperishable Spirit is in all things.' Hence also we rightly call God the Father of all — not that he is by nature our Father, as he is Father of his Only-begotten;

'The Spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and that which holds all things together has knowledge of the voice' — that is: it has encompassed the invisible and the visible creation, the intelligible and the sensible, and none of all things is without a share in his eternal oversight;

for this is what 'holding all things together' signifies.

'And it hearkens to every voice,' it says, since he, as God, is always present in all things everywhere, bringing every material disorder into its fitting order, and sparing and caring for the things made by him, inasmuch as he himself is by nature providence and wisdom, permeating through all things, just as the Father does.

For who has such knowledge? And Isaiah also speaks thus:

'the spirit of knowledge and of godliness.' And David sings:

'Where shall I go from your presence? And where shall I flee from your Spirit?' And the Master too, teaching that the divinity of the Holy Spirit is not circumscribed by place, but is at once in heaven and on earth, having always supplied and ever supplying all sufficiency to creation, said in [the Gospel of] John:

'If you love me, keep my commandments;

and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you forever — the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold him, nor does it know him;

but you know him, for he abides with you, and will be in you.' And so that it may become known that testimonies such as these also declare it to be of the one infinite nature that is present everywhere:

they have handed down equal things concerning each of the two incorrupt hypostases: Jeremiah expounding on behalf of God the Father:

'Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.' And David, concerning the Son, singing in Psalm 144:

'and of his greatness there is no end.' And Paul, preaching concerning the same [Son]:

'He who descended is the same who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.' Concerning [the fact] that, though called incorruptible, creation is not once for all incorruptible:

but it admits of corruption — namely, that consumption which we also call change — as the prophecy says:

He who makes all things and transforms them. Having heard this, the wise men of the outside [i.e. the pagan philosophers] say:

'dissolving them into themselves, and again building them up from themselves.'

For on the one hand the incorporeal rational creation has corruption according to its own free choice, since God has given it an abiding nature and has established it forever, even unto the age of the age;

but when it changes of its own free choice and falls away into a worse condition, it is corrupted by this very fact, so that it thereby loses, as it were, the very name of being called 'eternal.' For whatever goes out of itself, that is, is altered, meets death in its own alteration, even though it continues to exist in another way.

For indeed, whatever you might conceive to have come into being afterward, this is the death of the former state;

as, for instance, when vice becomes goodness, it is put to death, in the very respect from which it departed, by goodness;

and conversely, goodness is put to death by vice.

For there are certain things which, even though it was not denied them to stand always in their first condition, do not endure remaining so.

Accordingly they proclaim these things in their epistles; Peter, for his part, says:

'For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned,'

'but cast them down to Tartarus with chains of darkness, keeping them for the judgment of the great day, and did not spare the ancient world.' Jude, for his part, says:

'And the angels who did not keep their own dominion, but abandoned their own dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.' But the bodily rational creation undergoes alteration:

in respect of disposition, as Judas, who lost his sanctification;

and the widow who lives in wanton pleasure is dead while she lives, even though she still carries on her life among men still;

but in respect of substance, as first coming to an end, and then passing over into immortality:

'For,' he says, 'this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.' But the non-rational creation undergoes change and passes away;

as when the light was turned into darkness and the water into blood, it was prophesied:

'This is the change wrought by the right hand of the Most High.' And elsewhere:

'Heaven,' he says, 'and earth shall pass away.' For it was prophesied that there would be new heavens and a new earth,

for indeed it is true that everything which has received a beginning also has an end.

But the Holy Spirit, since it belongs to that ineffable, all-sovereign, eternal and incorruptible nature, and is ever the same and continues always in the same manner,

and alone knows and does the things of God;

and is the guardian of all things — both of the rational beings who are perfected in faith, and of the non-rational, up to the limit given to the non-rational for their continuance in sameness;

it stands, by nature and by choice, incapable of turning and change — which is to say, incorruptible.

But that which is unchangeable, that is, incorruptible, is thereby also without beginning, without end, and beyond the ages.

It is Creator, and not a creature.

Wherefore Wisdom rightly says:

'For your incorruptible Spirit is in all things.' And Peter says:

'in the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.' For in this way too the Father, being ever equal and like to himself, admitting neither a lessening toward the worse nor an increase toward the better, was heard to say through James:

'with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.' And from Paul:

'to the incorruptible, invisible, only wise God' — in the same way the Son also was borne witness to in Psalm 101:

'But you, O Lord, remain forever.' And again:

'In the beginning you, O Lord, founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands;

they will perish, but you remain;

and they will all grow old like a garment;

and like a cloak you will roll them up, and they will be changed;

but you are the same forever, and your years will not fail.' It is clear that the created order does not possess eternity once for all and completely of itself; first, because it does not have this of its own, but obtained it for the time thereafter, from the moment it came into being, by a communication from the God who alone exists of himself and beyond the ages;

for since he is good, in creating he also provides an end for it;

presiding over his own creation, he graciously bestows eternity upon it as an honor;

and secondly, on account of the reasons already explained in the chapter before this one.

But the Holy Spirit, as possessing eternity by nature — as befits the creative and good Spirit of God, who eternally works all things, and is himself never brought to an end, yet is able to bring to an end the things that come to be through him — it is for this that he has been celebrated with this title.

You might learn this, if you would follow me, in this way:

Paul writes to the Hebrews thus:

'Who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God.' He speaks of the Master Christ, who in his awesome incarnation offered himself, through the Holy Spirit, on our behalf to his own Father.

And Peter too resounds in agreement, as has already been mentioned:

'But the word of God abides forever.' For here he calls the Spirit of God 'the word of God.'

Accordingly, when Paul commemorates the identity of the Godhead of the Father and the Son, he makes use of the very same laudatory expression:

'The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' he says, 'knows, he who is blessed forever.' And again:

'Jesus Christ, yesterday and today,

and forever the same.' Yet there is not, there is not, anything to be heard by any hearing like the things which those who stand opposed to the theology of the Holy Spirit have determined concerning this topic.

For out of preconception they lead themselves away to the ends of the earth;

for passion is not accustomed to bear witness to an accurate examination;

nevertheless, nothing at all prevents us from hearing that very sophistry of theirs;

for in this way they would be condemned all the more.

Not everything that is called 'eternal' by a mere sharing of the name can be called God; rather, whoever is God is the maker of eternal things.

God is the maker of times and ages. And again:

'God, having spoken of old in many parts and in many ways to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us in a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the ages.' For it is not the case that whatever is called 'eternal' ought to be named God;

'and be lifted up, you everlasting gates.' And again:

'years of old were remembered.' And yet again:

'like everlasting sheep.' And:

'these will rise to eternal punishment.' And elsewhere:

'those who are in the dust of the earth shall rise, some to eternal life, and others to eternal shame.' Are, then, both punishment and shame gods? You see into what absurdity and impiety this mere sharing of the name 'eternal' falls. In their thoughts and words, then, brine floats on the surface and is thoroughly mixed in;

as we have just mentioned concerning the name 'eternal' — the other things so named may indeed have obtained it, only they did not obtain it apart from time;

but they also have corruption, that is, a turning that comes from their own will, and their 'eternal' is altogether unlike the divine eternal;

just as also he who is called 'holy,' whether angel or man, is not this in the same and equal manner as the Spirit who is Holy of Holies;

for that Spirit itself is wholly holiness and eternity.

Let them therefore take note with what great solemnity 'eternal' has been proclaimed of the Holy Spirit, and that to this he has further added that wondrous thing, most incomprehensible of all — I mean that he who fashioned the ages offered himself, through the Holy Spirit, to his own true Father on our behalf.

Let them also consider that all the powers of the heavens are in the Holy Spirit, entirely because he is, as it were, a co-creator with the Creator who is in need of nothing;

and that, as for the things which the heretics mentioned concerning eternal gates and sheep — not fittingly, but by artful contrivance — the oracles which we have brought forward on this topic have already foretold the outcome.