But the Son, before he dwelt among men, spoke to each one of the saints; and after his ascension into the heavens, the Holy Spirit also said to the disciples: 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Paul for the work to which I have called them' (Acts 13:2). And the prophet Ezekiel, crying out against the old people, says: 'And you grieved me in all these things, says the Lord' (Ezekiel 16:43). But Paul writes to the new people: 'Do not grieve the Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption' (Ephesians 4:30). And David likewise says against the Jews: 'And they provoked the Lord in the wilderness' (Psalm 77:40). Isaiah too says concerning the same:
'But they acted obstinately, and provoked the Holy Spirit' (Isaiah 63:10). And Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says: 'Do you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me?' (2 Corinthians 13:3). And again: 'A woman is bound for as long as her husband lives; but if her husband dies, she is free; let her marry whom she will, only in the Lord. But she will be more blessed if she so remains, according to my judgment; for I think that I too have the Spirit of God' (1 Corinthians 7:39-40). And to the Romans he says: 'I speak the truth in Christ Jesus, I lie not, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit' (Romans 9:1). And in Isaiah the Lord says: 'I have begotten and exalted sons; but they have despised me' (Isaiah 1:2).
And in the Gospel: 'That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is holy, for the Spirit is of God' (John 3:6). And again: 'The Spirit breathes where he wills, and you hear his voice, but you do not know whence he comes, nor where he goes. So is everyone who is born of the Holy Spirit' (ibid., 8). Does he, then, by comparing these things to the beginning of the Gospel, diminish the dignity of the Holy Spirit? For at the very beginning of the Gospel, John says concerning the Savior and concerning those who believed: 'As many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God' (John 1:12-13).
Expounding also the regeneration of the faithful, and afterward instructing Nicodemus, the Lord said that those who believe in him — that is, those who receive him — must be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, thus: 'Marvel not that I said to you, you must be born again. The Spirit breathes where he wills, and you hear his voice, but you do not know whence he comes nor where he goes. So is everyone who is born of the Holy Spirit' (John 3:7-8). And recalling before this: 'That which is born of the Spirit is spirit' (ibid., 6). 'Of the flesh, flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.'
If therefore those who are born by heavenly regeneration are, being begotten of the Holy Spirit, begotten of God, why ought we not to think something great and divine and worthy of the Trinity concerning the Spirit, as far as is within human capacity? And what shall we think when we again hear Paul writing to the Corinthians concerning the Spirit: 'Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? And you are not your own; for you were bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your hearts' (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Are such things properly said of anything among the creatures? And would they write of the Holy Spirit such things as are said of God, if he were a creature?
And what shall we do when we hear Peter saying to Ananias: 'Why is it that Satan has tempted your heart, that you should lie to the Holy Spirit, and keep back part of the price of the field? You have not lied to men, but to God' (Acts 5:3-4)? But perhaps they will say: those who lie to the Spirit of God thus also lie to God, just as those who treat a minister with insult certainly dishonor the King. To them we say: Then did not those who lied to the apostles lie also to God? Or do not those who receive the apostles receive God? — as the Lord says to the apostles: 'He who receives you receives me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me' (Matthew 10:40). Peter, then, when recalling: 'Why is it that Satan has tempted your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?' — ought to have said:
'You have not lied to the Holy Spirit, but to God'; or to say: 'Why is it that Satan has tempted you to lie to us? You have not lied to men, but to God,' so that what follows might have its proper reasoning. For God delivered to his saints both to be wise and to make profession, even as, when by the sons of Israel — that great Samuel being despised — a king was demanded, and Samuel had been grieved, God said to him: 'They have not despised you, but me' (1 Samuel 8:7). And Peter indeed did not use such words; but when Ananias and Sapphira his wife thought to deceive men, one of those who were thought to be deceived, Peter, said: 'Why is it that Satan has tempted you to lie to the Holy Spirit? You have not lied to men, but to God.' Thus indeed also to Sapphira, when she came in, he straightway said:
'Why is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?' (Acts 5:9). And the holy oracles teach us to live faithfully to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as Paul writes to the Romans: 'For in that he died, he died to sin once; but in that he lives, he lives to God' (Romans 6:10). And again: 'That those who live may no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and rose again' (2 Corinthians 5:15). And again, rebuking the Galatians, he writes: 'If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit' (Galatians 5:25). And when Paul said: 'But to us there is one Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things' (1 Corinthians 8:6).
And that which is greatest in all creation — that is, the body of the Lord — is believed to be from the Holy Spirit, as the evangelist Matthew handed down: 'The birth of Christ was thus. When Mary his mother was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit. But Joseph her husband, since he was a just man, and was unwilling to expose her, wished to put her away secretly. But while he was thinking on these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying to him: Joseph, son of David, do not fear to receive Mary your wife; for that which is born of her is of the Holy Spirit' (Matthew 1:18-20).
And although the Wisdom of Solomon in the Proverbs spoke of the body of the Saviour, saying, 'Wisdom hath builded herself a house' (Prov. IX, 1), and here professes the Only-begotten to be the creator of his own body, yet here the angel declared that this body was of the Holy Spirit; and so every Christian, when he is instructed, believes. For Scripture is not at variance concerning the Trinity, but everywhere teaches that one and the same is its working. Indeed, when the blessed Virgin Mary, who was to bring forth God, had heard Gabriel saying, 'Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus' (Luke I, 31), and the rest; and when she had asked, 'How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?' (Ibid., 34), she was at once taught by him as he said:
'The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God' (Ibid., 35). But if the power of the Most High is the Only-begotten, according to Paul who says, 'Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God' (1 Cor. I, 24); and if the Holy Spirit is the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth — and by these overshadowing Mary who was to give birth, the Lord's temple was created — yet the angel declared that he was created of the Holy Spirit: why should we not be instructed that the working of the Trinity is one? For the Lord said to Nicodemus that all the faithful too are of the Holy Spirit, professing: 'That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.'
'Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The Spirit bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest its voice, but knowest not whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Holy Spirit' (John III, 6, 7, 8). Since we hear, 'To us there is one God the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him' (1 Cor. VIII, 6); and since we have that which is greater than the whole creation and the glorious things, that is, the body of the Lord, and also all the saints who are holy by the Holy Spirit: why ought we not, from the Scriptures, to think the same things of the Holy Spirit as we do of the Father and the Son? But if this seems grievous or impious to the ungodly, then, just as they believe in the Father and the Son, let them not so believe in the Holy Spirit;
and just as they baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son, let them likewise not baptize also in the name of the Holy Spirit. But let us see whether those who think thus even believe in God or baptize at all, since they do not see in the holy Scriptures the unity of the Trinity. For the most blessed Paul wrote to the Ephesians: 'Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day; and when ye have accomplished all things, stand, having your loins girt about with truth, and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; above all these taking the shield of faith, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God' (Eph. VI, 13). Behold the whole armour and the helmet of the Son: for he himself is the salvation, as the prophet Isaiah says:
'And all flesh shall see the salvation of our God' (Isa. XL, 5). But the sword of the Holy Spirit — has it ever departed from the Trinity? Does it not teach the unity? What then can anyone say about the Holy Spirit, when he hears such professions concerning him proclaimed in the Scriptures? Let him also hear the saints praying to the Lord: 'O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger' (Ps. VI, 2); and in another psalm: 'I will reprove thee, and set thy sins before thy face' (Ps. XLIX, 21); and the Saviour saying of the Holy Spirit: 'But if I go, I will send the Paraclete unto you; and when he is come, he will reprove this world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment' (John XVI, 7). And just as in Isaiah we hear of the converse of the Only-begotten among men:
'There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root, and the Spirit of God shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and godliness, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him. He shall not judge according to glory, neither reprove according to eloquence, but he shall judge with lowly judgment, and shall convict the proud, and shall deliver the lowly of the earth, and shall smite the earth with the word of his mouth, and with the breath through his lips shall slay the ungodly' (Isa. XI, 1-4). Therefore we see him both dwelling among men, and we see the Spirit of God, that is the Holy Spirit (who is also called the seven spirits), resting upon him;
but we have not yet beheld him as judge, but we await to see him at his second coming. So therefore, when we hear of the Holy Spirit also, we consider: for the Son of God himself is he who said, 'And when the Paraclete is come, he will reprove this world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment' (John XVI, 8). For the Lord will not come in the flesh without the Holy Spirit, but holding together with his divinity him who fills the universe, since he is the anointing upon his own flesh. So indeed we have heard David singing and saying, 'Whither shall I go from thy spirit, and whither shall I flee from thy face?' (Ps. CXXXVIII, 7). Or did he not, as though awaiting the Spirit as judge, frame these professions?
For every work is the proper work of God, and of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. Or have we not heard him in the ninety-fourth psalm saying of God: 'To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness, where your fathers tempted me' (Ps. XCIV, 8). And of himself: 'They proved and saw my works. Forty years long was I nigh unto this generation, and said, They do alway err in heart. But they have not known my ways: so I sware in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest' (Ibid., 9-11). But if they should say that he is God and not a spirit who says, 'Wherefore I hated that generation,' and all the things said before;
let them hear Paul, who, writing to the Hebrews, applies the things that are said in the same psalm thus: 'Wherefore, as the Holy Spirit saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts' (Heb. III, 7). And let them come to the prophet Isaiah and hear him saying: 'Not an ambassador, nor an angel, but he himself shall save them, because he loved them; and he himself took them up, and exalted them all the days of the age. But they dealt stubbornly, and provoked the Holy Spirit, and he was turned to be their enemy' (Isa. LXIII, 9).
Moreover let them also listen to Stephen, the first-fruits of the martyrs, rebuking the rulers of the Jews on account of the benefits which God bestowed upon their fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, having wrought signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years; and on account of the impious things they did, making a calf and worshipping idols, and on account of all the wicked things they devised, saying to them: 'Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted and slain? for they foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have now become the betrayers and murderers;
ye who received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it' (Acts VII, 51-53). Who then will not marvel at the divinity of the Holy Spirit, when such things are said of him? Who will not venerate the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, when he sees him reproving this world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment? When he sees him raising the dead, and quickening them, and doing what the Father and the Son do? For it is written in the Gospel: 'For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will' (John V, 21). And the apostle Paul says to the Romans: 'If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you:'
he that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you' (Rom. VIII, 11). And David in the hundred and third psalm: 'Thou shalt take away their spirit, and they shall fail, and shall be turned into dust. Send forth thy Spirit, and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth' (Ps. CIII, 29). And can anyone refuse to confess that the Paraclete is a creator, who is sent, and creates bodies long dissolved and turned into their dust, and renews the face of the earth, according to that which is written in the prophet Isaiah: 'For there shall be a new heaven and a new earth' (Isa. LXV, 17)? Without whom neither the Father nor the Son works anything in creation, as we have before demonstrated from the holy Scriptures.
And again Paul writes to the Romans: 'For I have confidence in Christ Jesus toward the Lord; but I dare not to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, and in the truth of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit' (Rom. XV, 17): teaching that Christ wrought signs and wonders through himself by the Holy Spirit. And to the Ephesians: 'For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, of whom every fatherhood in heaven and earth is named, 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 by faith' (Eph. III, 14).
And these things indeed Paul writes of the Father and the Son in the singular: as to the Thessalonians, which we have frequently mentioned, he says: 'And the very God and Father of us sanctify you wholly' (1 Thess. V, 23). He does not say 'sanctify you' in the plural, but 'sanctify' in the singular. But when to the Corinthians he speaks of the Son and the Spirit: 'But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God' (1 Cor. VI, 11). And of the Father indeed, and of the Spirit: 'Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are' (1 Cor. III, 16).
But David also speaks of the Father and the Spirit: 'Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? and whither shall I flee from thy face? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there' (Ps. CXXXVIII, 7); and he did not say 'you' (plural), although he spoke of the Spirit and the Father: for where God is, there too the Son is shown to be, and the Spirit, and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit God is worshipped. For when the Samaritan woman still thought carnally of God, and supposed that God was worshipped in a place, and said, 'Lord, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship' (John IV, 19): the Lord, excluding that God should be worshipped in a place, said to her:
'Woman, believe me, that the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father; but the hour cometh, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such; and they that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth' (Ibid., 21). But if in spirit and in truth, then God is worshipped in the Son: for the truth is the Son, who said, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life' (John XIV, 6); why then should not the Spirit be worshipped by us together with the Father? For it is inadmissible that those who venerate a corporeal God should not worship in the Spirit and in the Son. Otherwise, if they worship God in the Spirit, the Spirit is co-worshipped;
since they hear in Christ the Father glorified in the Church, what will they assert themselves to be doing? For Paul, writing to the Ephesians, says: 'Now unto him that is able to do all things abundantly above that which we ask or think, to him be glory in the Church, in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations of the age of ages' (Eph. III, 20). And again Paul says: 'For through Christ is said Amen unto the Father, to his glory' (2 Cor. I, 20): through us glorifying the Father and the Son, and in the Son the Father — the Son surely not glorifying along with us. Thus therefore, worshipping God in the Spirit and in the Son, that is, worshipping through the Spirit and through the Son, we co-worship the Lord, and the Son, and the Spirit. Finally Paul writes:
'That at the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow, and every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father' (Phil. II, 10). But if those who bow their knees at the name of Jesus Christ glorify the Son together with the Father, why should not those who in the Spirit worship the Father and the Son also worship him together with the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit? If therefore we have heard Moses saying, 'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve' (Deut. VI, 13), we know that together with him are proclaimed the Son of God and the Spirit. And lest we should seem to be recalling things unwritten, and to speak of our own, the worship of the heavenly powers must be demonstrated, even as we have learned from the holy Scriptures.
Perhaps those men, becoming imitators, will thus learn both to venerate and to pray. Whom do they wish to have been praised, and worshipped, and glorified by the seraphim when he was seen by Isaiah in the temple — the Father or the Son? For perhaps they will stop their ears if they hear that it was also the Holy Spirit. For Isaiah says: 'And it came to pass in the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord of Sabaoth sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the house was full of his glory; and the seraphim stood round about him, each one having six wings, and the other six; and with twain indeed they covered the face, with twain the feet, and with twain they did fly; and they cried one to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Sabaoth;
the whole earth is full of his glory; and the threshold was lifted up at the voice with which they cried, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: O wretched am I, for I am pricked to the heart; because, being a man, and having unclean lips, and dwelling in the midst of a people having unclean lips, I have seen with my eyes the King, the Lord of Sabaoth. And there was sent unto me one of the seraphim, and in his hand he had a coal, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar; and he touched my mouth, and said unto me: Behold, this hath touched thy lips, and shall take away thine iniquities, and shall purge thy sins. And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people? And I said: Behold me, send me. And he said unto me: Go to this people, and say to it:
Ye shall hear with the ear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and believe, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. And I said: How long, O Lord?' (Isa. VI, 1-11). Whom then do they wish this to be? let them bring it forward, for perhaps they will say the Son. For in the Gospel according to John it is written: 'And therefore they could not believe in Jesus, because Isaiah the prophet said: He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them' (John XII, 39).
These things therefore Isaiah said when he had seen his glory and spoke of him. And what will they do about Paul, who says that it was the Spirit who was seen by Isaiah in that glory, and who spoke to him, when he sent him to the people to say the things mentioned above? For it is written thus in the Acts of the apostles: 'And when they agreed not among themselves, the Jews departed, after Paul had spoken one word: For well spake the Holy Spirit to your fathers by the prophet Isaiah, saying: Ye shall hear with the ear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive.'
The heart of this people is waxed gross, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them' (Acts XXVIII, 25-27). Behold, John indeed says that it was the Son, but Paul that it was the Holy Spirit, who was seen by Isaiah, sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, who is worshipped, and praised, and glorified by the seraphim. But all the Churches of Christ, from the East even to the West, agreeably profess that it is the Father who is praised by the seraphim in the recitation of the liturgies. Let those then who deny veneration to the Holy Spirit tell us which of these speaks the truth, or which deceives. Is it John, or Paul,
or rather all the Churches of Christ? Since indeed all the Churches profess that it is the Father who is worshipped by the Seraphim, John the Son, and Paul the Holy Spirit. But if none of them deceives, but all speak the truth, it is manifestly proved that even though the name of the Father be spoken, yet it has the Son and the Holy Spirit proclaimed together with it. Otherwise, what will they do who hear the Saviour saying to the disciples: 'Go ye, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit' (Matt. XXVIII, 19)? whereas Scripture named not a Trinity, but a unity.
For it is written thus in the Acts of the apostles, concerning those who believed in Samaria and were baptized by Philip: 'Only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus' (Acts VIII, 16). But concerning those who were baptized by Paul at Ephesus: 'When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ' (Ibid., 12; Acts XIX, 5). Peter also, addressing the Jews, says: 'Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins' (Acts II, 38). And they, when they had heard and approved his words, were baptized; and there were added in that day about three thousand souls (Ibid., 41). Did they then become transgressors of the Saviour's command?
And did they baptize so great a multitude contrary to the tradition of the Saviour? For it is not written that they baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, but only in the name of the Lord Jesus. Did they then transgress? Far be it. For although only the name of the Son be spoken, yet it has the Father and the Spirit proclaimed together with it, as we have proved in the holy Scriptures. Therefore the Holy Spirit also is called Sabaoth, and is, together with God and with the Son, worshipped by the seraphim. For which cause they say these things three times, 'Holy, holy, holy' (Isa. VI, 3), that they might proclaim the Trinity.
Whence also Paul does not deny that the Spirit is called Lord, saying to the Corinthians: 'Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty' (2 Cor. III, 17). And to the Romans he says: 'For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death' (Rom. VIII, 2). How then have you dared to call the Holy Spirit a servant, who has set the creation free? For if all things were made through him, does this show the Holy Spirit to be a creature? Likewise, does that which is written in the hundred and eighteenth psalm, 'For all things serve thee' (Ps. CXVIII, 91), show the Holy Spirit to be a servant? But neither does that wherein it is said, 'all things were made through the Son,' assign the Holy Spirit to be a thing made;
for he himself is the one who speaks: nor does the fact that 'all things serve the Son' show him to be a servant. Otherwise, how is Paul to be heard, saying: 'For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba, Father' (Rom. VIII, 15)? Therefore the Holy Spirit is taught to be neither a servant nor a creation. But you defame him as being both fleshly and a servant, whereas he is not only free, but also bestows freedom upon the creature, as we have proved above. And again Paul writes: 'Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit' (1 Cor. XII, 4). And: 'But all these worketh one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will' (Ibid., 11).