Anti-Arian Works 12 part 2/2

A similar understanding. Again: 'If then you shall see the Son of man ascending where he was before. It is the Spirit that quickeneth: for the flesh profiteth nothing' (John 6:63-64). He that quickeneth has nothing less of Godhead. Again: 'When the Paraclete shall come, the Spirit of truth, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall lead you into all truth, and shall teach you' (John 16:13, 14:26). It is God who shall lead into all truth. In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter to Cornelius: 'Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit' (Acts 10:38). The man was anointed, not God. Again to Ananias: 'Why hath Satan tempted thy heart, that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Spirit?' (Acts 5:3). And he adds: 'Thou hast not lied to men, but to God' (v. 4).

Again: 'The Holy Spirit said: Separate me Saul and Barnabas, for the ministry to which I have called them' (Acts 13:2). Here he brings in the person neither of the Father nor of the Son, whom nevertheless a sound understanding does not separate from the command. Again, the Apostle to the Gentiles by an Epistle: 'It hath seemed good,' he says, 'to the Holy Spirit and to us, to lay upon you no further burden than that you abstain from idols, from fornication, and from blood' (Acts 15:28). Was this command made without the Father and the Son? Again there: 'And the Spirit said to Peter: Arise, go with them, for I have sent them to thee' (Acts 10:19-20). Does any but the Creator command the creature? Again there: 'From Miletus Paul, sending to Ephesus, called the presbyters and elders' (Acts

20:17); and after much exhortation he added: 'Take heed to the flock of Christ, in which the Holy Spirit hath placed you bishops' (Acts 20:28). Is the Father or the Son separated from this appointment of a priest? Paul to the Romans: 'But the Spirit is life eternal, and peace' (Rom. 8:6). This the Father, this the Son, this the Holy Spirit; but one life, not three. In the same place: 'The Spirit is life because of justice' (Rom. 8:10). This the Father, this the Son. In the same place: 'But if the Spirit of him who raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you' (v. 11). What kind of God is this who raised up the flesh of the Creator from the dead? In the same place: 'For we have not received the spirit of bondage' (v. 15).

None is free but God, which the Holy Spirit is. In the same place: 'Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing: in the abundance of hope and the power of the Holy Spirit' (Rom. 15:13). As Christ is the power of God, so is the Holy Spirit. In the same place: 'That the offering of the Gentiles may be made sanctified in the Holy Spirit' (Rom. 15:16). As the Spirit quickeneth, so also he sanctifieth. In the same place: 'For I dare not to speak of any of those things which Christ worketh not by me for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deeds; by the power of signs and wonders, in the virtue of the Holy Spirit' (Rom. 15:18-19). The Son is power, the Spirit is power, the Father is power; but one, not three. First to the Corinthians: 'But the Spirit searcheth all things.'

'No man knoweth the things of God, but the Spirit of God' (1 Cor. 2:10-11). In the same place: 'You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you' (1 Cor. 3:16). It is God who dwelleth in his own temple. In the same place: 'You are washed and sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God' (1 Cor. 6:11). Behold, the Son and the Holy Spirit together cleanse, together sanctify. In the same place: 'One and the same Spirit worketh all things, dividing to every one according as he will' (1 Cor. 12:11). He who freely does what he will is subject to none. Second to the Corinthians: 'An epistle written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God' (2 Cor. 3:3). The spirit of a man is not less than the man; how much more the Spirit of God!

In the same place: 'The letter killeth, but the Spirit quickeneth' (2 Cor. 3:6). He who quickeneth is God: for the Lord killeth and maketh alive (1 Sam. 2:6). To the Galatians: 'That we may receive the blessing of the Spirit through faith' (Gal. 3:14). It is God who blesseth. In the same place: 'If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit' (Gal. 5:25). He who again blesseth, himself quickeneth as God. In the same place: 'He that soweth in the Spirit, of the Spirit shall reap life everlasting' (Gal. 6:8). In these three testimonies to the Galatians, the Spirit both blesseth, and quickeneth, and giveth life everlasting. To the Ephesians: 'In whom believing you were sealed with the Holy Spirit' (Eph. 1:13). We are sealed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. In the same place:

'In whom you also are built together into a habitation of God in the Spirit' (Eph. 2:22). Again: 'It has been revealed to his holy apostles in the Spirit, that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs' (Eph. 3:5-6). One and the same Spirit worketh all things: he makes them heirs. In the same place: 'That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened by his Spirit' (Eph. 3:16). None strengthens but God. In the same place: 'Careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace' (Eph. 4:3). Christ is peace. Are there then two peaces? In the same place: 'And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God' (Eph. 6:17). The Word of God is Christ; the Holy Spirit is the word of God. Are there then two words? To the Philippians: 'Whether being absent I hear of you, that you stand in one Spirit' (Phil.

1:27), that is, in God. To the Thessalonians: 'God hath chosen you from the beginning unto salvation, in sanctification of the Spirit' (2 Thess. 2:13). First to Timothy: 'Great is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit' (1 Tim. 3:16). Behold, the Holy Spirit sanctifies even the incarnation of Christ. Second to Timothy: 'Keep the good thing committed to thee, by the Holy Spirit who dwelleth in us' (2 Tim. 1:14). If the Spirit were not God, the Apostle would not dare to adjure his disciple by him. Moreover, 'who dwelleth in us.' To Titus: 'He saved us by the laver of regeneration, by the Holy Spirit' (Tit. 3:5). Peter to the Gentiles:

'These things have been announced to you by those who preached the gospel to you, the Holy Spirit being sent from heaven: into whom the angels desire to look' (1 Pet. 1:12). It is God whom the angels desire to look upon. In the same place: 'Christ died for our sins, the just for the unjust: that he might offer us to God, being put to death indeed in the flesh, but quickened in the Spirit' (1 Pet. 3:18). In the same place: 'That they may be judged indeed according to men in the flesh, but may live according to God in the Spirit' (1 Pet. 4:6). In the same place: 'If you be reproached in Christ, because the Spirit of the glory of the Lord resteth upon you' (1 Pet. 4:14). Christ is the glory of the Father, the Holy Spirit is the glory. Are there then two glories? Second of Peter:

'Understanding this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpretation. For prophecy came not at any time by the will of man: but the men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit' (2 Pet. 1:20-21). None inspires the gift of prophecy but God. John to the Parthians: 'In this we know that he abideth in us, by the Holy Spirit whom he hath given us' (1 John 3:24). In the same place: 'Because we abide in him, and he in us; because he hath given us of his Spirit' (1 John 4:13). That which you hear, 'he hath given,' is a working of power, not a separation of the Godhead. In the Apocalypse: 'And after three days and a half, the Spirit of life from God entered into them; and they stood upon their feet' (Rev. 11:11).

That which proceeds from God is God. In the same place: 'Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours' (Rev. 14:13). It did not say the Father, it did not say the Son, but the Spirit, who by this command is shown to be God. To the Hebrews: 'For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled, sanctify the defiled to the cleansing of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Spirit offered himself unspotted to God!' (Heb. 9:13-14). This testimony teaches of what power the Holy Spirit is, by whom the flesh of Christ is presented unspotted. In the same place:

'Any man that made void the law of Moses died without any mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much greater punishments, do you think, shall he be counted worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath esteemed the blood of the Testament unclean, and hath offered an affront to the Spirit of grace!' (Heb. 10:28-29). Behold, what vengeance for injury done to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. In the same place: 'God the judge of all, and the spirits of the just made perfect, and Jesus the mediator of the New Testament' (Heb. 12:23-24). This testimony befits the Trinity, because both the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit is here named. That the Holy Spirit is almighty, in Solomon:

'The Holy Spirit, manifold, subtle, eloquent, secure, undefiled, having all power' (Wisd. 7:22). And dost thou deny him to be almighty? That the Holy Spirit is judge, the Lord says: 'If I go, I will send him to you; and when he is come, he will convince the world of sin, of justice, and of judgment' (John 16:7-8). Thou seest the judge, who even vindicates, if it must be said, the Saviour himself: and does anyone dare to withdraw the Godhead from him? And what more shall I say of the Godhead of the Holy Spirit? whom David greatly fears, saying: 'Whither shall I go, O Lord, from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy face?' (Ps. 138:7).

And to conclude, so great and such is the Holy Spirit, that if anyone shall blaspheme against him, he shall find him not remitting to him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. The catholic faith. 10. To express in human words that ineffable substance or nature of the Godhead is impossible: unconvertible, immutable, impassible, simple, uncompounded, indivisible, light unapproachable, power inexplicable, greatness without end, glory beyond beholding, goodness to be desired, beauty unsearchable, which indeed touches and moves the affection of a pure mind, but cannot be indicated or explained.

Where there is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, there is the sole nature which is not created, the power of dominion, the natural goodness. The Father is the beginning of all things, the cause of all, the root of the living: from whom proceeds the fountain of life, the power and unchanged image of the invisible God, who is the Son begotten of the Father. The Word, or living reason; who always was, and was with God, and was God, not made from the Father before the ages, not afterward assumed or adopted into a Son, not by possession or fashioning, but the creator and maker of all things: who is all that the Father is; to whom the Father, by begetting, gave all that he has. And so where he who gave, gave by begetting; and he who received, received by being born;

help was not brought to one in need, but abundance itself was born. For he who received cannot be unequal to him who gave, because he received even this by being born, that he should be equal. For he who said, 'All things that the Father hath are mine' (John 16:15), has nothing less than the Father. And because he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, not losing the form of God, in that same form of a servant he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; in which he was made a little lower than the angels, that in the form of God he might remain equal; for that form is not mutable. He who in heaven, to the pure intellectual spirits, in the form of God and equal to God, as God offers an example;

so that the same might offer itself as an example even to man, fallen and returning, who because of the impurity of sins and the penalty of mortality could not see God: he emptied himself, not by losing his divinity, but by assuming our humanity: and taking the form of a servant, he came to us into this world, he who was in this world, because the world was made by him (John 1:10), that he might be an example to those looking upward at God, an example to those below wondering at man: an example to the sound for remaining, an example to the sick for recovering; an example to those about to die for not fearing, an example to the dead for rising again: himself holding the primacy in all things:

so that, since man ought to follow none but God unto blessedness, and yet could not perceive God; by following God made man, he might at once follow both him whom he could perceive, and him whom he ought to follow. Let us therefore love him, and cleave to him, by the charity shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us. This Spirit is both life, and quickening light, and illuminating; good, and goodness; a right Spirit, a principal Spirit, who is the Lord of all; sending forth the apostles, separating ministers to himself, establishing temples for himself, breathing where he will, dividing the gifts of the Spirit as he will.

The Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of knowledge, of counsel, of power, and of the fear of God: by whom the Father is acknowledged, and the Son is glorified. For it is not fitting either that the Son should at any time have been wanting to the Father, or the Spirit to the Son: for the Godhead would have been defrauded in the greatest things, and would be reckoned as it were inglorious and unworthy, if, as it were out of repentance and after-thought, God had come to the fulness of perfection. He that can receive it, let him receive it (Matt. 19:12): he who cannot yet, let him pray that he may receive it, let him believe that he may receive it: because it is written: 'Unless you believe, you shall not understand' (Isa. 7:9, according to the Septuagint).