But Peter also, the chief of the Apostles, taught that the chrism by which the Saviour is shown to be Christ is the Holy Spirit, and that very thing also the power of God, when in the Acts of the Apostles he spoke to the most faithful and merciful Cornelius, who was then a centurion. For among other things he says: 'Beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: even Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, he went about doing virtues and mighty works, and freeing all that were oppressed by the devil' (Acts 10:37-38). You see that Peter too said that this Jesus according to the flesh was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. Whence also truly this same Jesus according to the flesh was made Christ:
who by the anointing of the Holy Spirit was made both king and priest for ever. Now I have pursued these things for this reason, that it may clearly appear that Jesus the Son of God was crucified, or made Lord and Christ, not according to the fact that he is the Word and Wisdom of God, but according to that which he assumed of Mary: although, through the passion of the assumed man, we also say that the only-begotten Son of God suffered; not because the only-begotten Son himself, insofar as he is the Word and Wisdom of God, truly suffered, but because whatever of injury or passion was inflicted on his assumed man, all of it is by a certain reasoning referred back to the same only-begotten, impassible God. Whence the Apostle Paul also, writing to the Corinthians, says: 'For if they had known' (1 Cor.
2:8)—namely the princes of this world—'they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.' If these things are plain, it now appears how it was said: 'Let all Israel therefore know most assuredly, that God hath made both Lord and Christ that same Jesus whom ye have crucified'—namely this Jesus; whom the same Peter above named a man, saying: 'Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by virtues and prodigies and signs' (Acts 2:22); this same Jesus Christ, namely, whom Paul also called a man, writing to Timothy: 'There is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus' (1 Tim. 2:5). Who also said in the Gospel:
'But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth' (John 8:40). IV. We say these things not on behalf of the impious Photinus, who would have him to be a mere man without the incarnation of God the Word, but we recite them against Arius the antichrist, who would have it that the only-begotten Son himself, who is the Word and Wisdom of God, was crucified as God, and not as man, and that he himself was made Lord and Christ. But even if with most stubborn obstinacy they contend, saying that it is written of God the Word himself that God made him both Lord and Christ; not even so do we take fright, in the confidence of truth, lest perchance through this that is written, the Word of God should be believed to have been made. For grant that the Word of God was made both Lord and Christ;
what does this prejudice against his substance, by which he is ever the Word of God? For attend to the fact that he did not say that the substance of the Word of God was made, but that this very Word, which is ever the Son of God, was made both Lord and Christ. For it is not the same thing, for that which in no way existed to come to be, and for that which existed to become something. For God too is sometimes made a helper and protector, yet not because he was made a helper and protector is he therefore to be believed to have been made also into that which God is. For Moses too, after he had felt the divine aid and protection, said of God who had aided and protected him against Pharaoh: 'He was made a helper and protector to me unto salvation' (Exod. 18:4);
and you will find many very similar testimonies, which I, lest I prolong further, pass over. If therefore, when God is a helper and protector, it is not believed that that which God is comes to be, but this very thing that he is designated to be, a helper and protector: what is it that, when they say the Word of God was made both Lord and Christ, we should suppose the substance of the Word of God to have been made? Is it that, because we read, 'And the Word was made flesh,' therefore the Word itself also is to be believed to have been made? But it is most manifestly expressed that not the Word was made which was in the beginning with God (John 1:1); but that the same Word, which always was, was afterward made flesh, as something made; not so as to be that which was made flesh.
So therefore, even when it is said that the Word of God was made both Lord and Christ, it is not to be understood that the substance of the Word of God was made; but that this very Word, which was always God, was made Lord and Christ. V. Now he becomes the Lord of those who deliver themselves up to the same purpose of serving him. And give me pardon, most blessed Matthew, if I should say that Christ God was not yet thy Lord, while thou wast still serving at the tax-office. But to all the Apostles also he was first made Lord then, when, having forsaken all things, they chose rather to serve him. To the nations themselves also he was then made Lord, when, having forsaken the vain superstition of idols, the nations themselves delivered themselves up to his dominion:
for insofar as anyone is a servant of sin or of mammon, to that extent he cannot be a servant of God. When therefore anyone has renounced sin and mammon, doing righteousness and spurning the desire of possessing, then Jesus becomes his Lord. By the same reasoning he is also understood to become Christ: since, as was said above, kings and priests were marked out by the appellation of Christ. The Saviour therefore was made the king of those who are no longer held bound by the kingdom of death; in whose mortal body sin has ceased to reign, after that, through the divine teachings, they learned from the Apostles who taught them: 'Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body' (Rom. 6:12).
But also when he fulfils for us the office of priest, Christ is most truly made, especially as a defender and advocate ever standing by for us, and also interceding with the Father, since he alone is the purest priest; that, the stain of our offence being expiated, we may be preserved by his divine propitiation. Through these things, therefore—that Jesus was made Christ and Lord—nothing so much is conferred on his divine substance as it was provided for those to whom the power of his kingdom and priesthood and dominion has been conferred as a saving gift. It does not seem absurd, if you likewise understand that which he says: 'But I am appointed king by him over Sion his holy mountain' (Ps. 2:6):
for although he is said to be appointed king, nevertheless when he added, 'over Sion his holy mountain,' it is shown that he does not speak of that kingdom of his which he had even before he was appointed king over Sion his holy mountain. For he is King before all the ages of ages, containing by his power every creature which he founded; whence also he is approved as omnipotent, in that he can contain all things that have been made. On what Solomon says: 'THE LORD CREATED ME AS THE BEGINNING OF HIS WAYS UNTO HIS WORKS.' I. Let us touch also that question last, which among the others you added: 'The Lord,' he says, 'created me as the beginning of his ways unto his works' (Prov. 8:22). The heretic says:
You see that wisdom is a creature, which surely, according to the Apostle Paul as interpreter, is Christ. Therefore Christ, he says, who is wisdom, is not the true Son, but a creature, existing as son by adoption. This is the poison of the Arians. But O how blind is impiety to see that which is pious! Now, since once, as it is written, 'They hated the wisdom of the Lord, and did not take up the word' (Baruch 3:12), they behold nothing of its most sincere beauty: just as to bleary eyes there is no sight of the truth, since their seeing reports otherwise than is in the reality of things;
and just as he whose proper taste the overflowing bitterness of his own gall has spoiled, if he should taste sweet honey, would defame the sweetness of the honey as bitter, not recognizing the evil of his own bitterness. But, O wretched heretic, what canst thou see of the true light, when thou art blind, or walkest in the ways of darkness, devising all things that are of impiety? Let that spiritual man cry out, inviting with the most delightful experience of the divine banquet: 'Taste, and see how sweet is the Lord' (Ps. 34:8): but to thee, if thou shouldst taste, nothing sweet is felt in the Lord, because, as it is written, 'the poison of asps is under thy lips,' because 'thy mouth is full of cursing and bitterness' (Ps. 14:3; cf. Rom. 3:13-14).
Finally, since Solomon himself proclaimed countless things about the wisdom of God, and discoursed of it so divinely that nothing else might be believed of it than what is in the nature of God, in all these things the blind heretic believed that he saw this one thing alone, by which he might prove that wisdom is a creature. 'But it is written,' he says, 'the Lord created me the beginning of his ways for his works.' Yet we shall not go further, nor cite from the other books of Solomon those passages which speak for the everlasting wisdom of God. It now suffices, if from this very passage from which he brought forward his testimony, the opposing side be overcome. II. You say, heretic, that it is written: 'The Lord created me the beginning of thy ways for his works.'
But mark that this same wisdom nonetheless says: 'Before all the hills he begot me' (Ps. 8:25). How then does this same wisdom in the same passage both say that it was created and that it was begotten? First we must see which is prior: whether that it was begotten, or that it was created. For although it first said, 'The Lord created me the beginning of his ways for his works,' nevertheless, lest you should think it a creature, it returns to that which is prior, saying in what follows: 'But before all the hills he begot me.' See, then, that you do not think it begotten afterward, because it first put forward that it was created. For although in the order of the words that it was created is placed first, and then that it was begotten,
nevertheless the sense judges that it was begotten before it was created; so that the meaning of wisdom's saying is this: 'The Lord created me the beginning of his ways for his works. But lest anyone should think me on this account a creature, or that I first began to be when he created me the beginning of his ways for his works, I add and say: But before all the hills he begot me; that you may know me begotten before created.' For when it says, 'But before all the hills he begot me,' it made that wherein it was created to be afterward, so that that wherein it was begotten goes before and is prior. If then it was so created that it was begotten before, the path of impiety is shut out, whereby he had called it created;
so that wisdom should be believed first to have subsisted when it also reported itself created by the Lord as the beginning of his ways for his works. For behold, the sense makes plain that even before it was created, wisdom subsisted, inasmuch as it was begotten before it was created. III. But this catholic sense will be still more commended, if the very words also, so far as is possible for us, are examined, by which wisdom refers to itself either as begotten or as created. 'The Lord,' it says, 'created me the beginning of his ways for his works.' Mark that when it said, 'The Lord created me,' it did not keep silent, lest it should truly be thought a creature, but goes on to explain what it was created and for what cause it was created. For it says, 'He created me the beginning of his ways';
and when there follows 'for his works,' it is plain that it has shown also the reasons why it was created as the beginning of the Lord's ways. Wisdom therefore was not created, as if it did not exist, in order that it might exist; but, since it always substantially existed, it was then created according to the dispensation as the beginning of the Lord's ways, and was created for the works of the Lord. As the beginning of the Lord's ways, then, it was created, and for the works of the Lord wisdom was created; yet not because it did not substantially exist before is wisdom on that account created. But when it says that it was begotten before all the hills, it does not say that it was begotten for the sake of any thing;
but, existing always as the eternal offspring of the Father, for certain causes it says it was created the beginning of the Lord's ways, that is, for the works of the Lord. Therefore from this also it is manifest that wisdom is not a creature, which was created unto something else, that is, for the works of the Lord; since it is itself begotten, not unto works, but of the Father, as we have said, existing as the eternal offspring. IV. But this too must be noted, that it is one thing to say that wisdom is created, and another to say that it is a creature. For although it may be read that wisdom was created, nowhere is it read that it is a creature. For not everything that has been created is already to be called a creature, although every creature has been created;
just as not everything that has been made is to be affirmed as a thing-made, although every thing-made has been made. If this seems obscure, I will make it clear by an example. We read that a certain man gives thanks and says to God: 'But I will sing thy power, and I will exalt thy mercy in the morning, for thou art become my upholder, and my refuge in the day of my tribulation' (Ps. 58:17). Behold, God has become an upholder and a refuge; yet God is not a thing-made: and this is what I said: Not everything that has been made is already to be called a thing-made. For God, not existing as a thing-made, who always is, has become an upholder and a refuge to man in the day of tribulation;
so that, in that he became an upholder and a refuge to man in the day of tribulation, he may be seen to have conferred that which he was made; yet not because he became an upholder and a refuge to man is God also to be believed a thing-made, whose divine substance is everlasting. Likewise also, if wisdom be said to be created, yet it is not a creature, since it always is: but, while it exists always, it is created unto something that it may profit, not that it should be called a creature as if it were made, which once was not. For the wisdom of God was inseparable from God: and this same wisdom, existing as the eternal offspring of God, was created the beginning of the Lord's ways. V. But I will set it forth still more openly. Surely the wisdom of God is the very thing by which
it is also written to be the Word, as was shown above. And surely, because it is written of the Word of God, 'And the Word was made flesh,' do we therefore already affirm the Word also to be a thing-made, as though it then first began to be when it was made flesh? But well, since it has been most clearly demonstrated that all things were made through the Word, and that in the last times this same Word was made flesh. The Word of God therefore is not a thing-made, although it is said to be made flesh: so also wisdom, though it be said to be created the beginning of the ways and for his works, is nevertheless not a creature; which is established to be before every creature, seeing that all things were made in wisdom (Ps. 103:24).
I add this also, that not everything which is said to be created is to be understood as if it came into being in substance. In fine, a certain man, seeing his heart infected with certain defilements, pours out a prayer to the Lord, saying: 'Create in me a clean heart, O God' (Ps. 50:12): he was surely not praying that the substance of a heart be made in him, but that this very heart existing in him, which was foul to him, be created clean. Not everything that is said to be created is at once to be understood also as coming to be according to substance: since the heart which already was, that very thing, he prayed might be created clean by the Lord. Therefore wisdom too, when it is said to be created, it is not so much that its substance, as if it were something that was not, was made;
but, existing itself, as has often been said, it was created the beginning of the ways for his works. Therefore, that wisdom was created, understand it of the mystery either of the things to be created or of the human dispensation, which, when the wisdom of God deigns to assume it, it is said to be created: but that it says it was begotten, understand it so that you may acknowledge nothing of divinity less in it than he has who begot it. For it is exceedingly impious to believe that at some time God was without his own wisdom. Whence also, since wisdom was truly begotten of God, existing the same according to substance as the begetter; and wisdom itself is Christ (1 Cor. 1:24):
therefore Christ, who is wisdom, is not a son by adoption, but a true Son, existing as the offspring of God, and not a thing-made. Concerning the Holy Spirit. I. All the questions you had written concerning the Father and the Son, so far as the grace of God has granted, I think have been resolved: if indeed this is true in your judgment, your religious prudence will decide; though I confess that, both from the constraint of time, and the haste of the matter, and the very dry and narrow eloquence of my own poor speech, I have rather touched their summits than pursued their fullness; because I had begun, as I said before, not to write a book, but that, as it were a certain brief reckoning of the faith might be marked out; lest your wondrous benevolence, having challenged me to this, should think me unfaithful, were I to keep silent.
But now concerning the Holy Spirit, even if briefly, confession must be made: lest, if we say nothing especially about him, we be thought to blaspheme likewise, as do those who say that he is a creature. Yet we marvel at the madness of these men, that they think impiously of him whom they confess to be the Holy Spirit. For if he is the Holy Spirit, how is he a creature? For he is not holy as the rest, who have come to the title of 'holy' by faith and by conduct pleasing to God and by the sealing of the Holy Spirit himself: but he himself is always naturally holy, so as to sanctify others, yet not as one who, not having had it before, received holiness from without.
This name of 'holy' the Spirit possesses just as the Father and the Son possess it: but he possesses it, not himself existing either as the Father or as the Son, but as the Spirit of God. And if he is called the Spirit of God, it is not as an angel of God, nor as a man of God, whose nature is immeasurably distinct from the divine substance: but he is the Spirit of God in such a way that he is of the same substance with the Father and the Son: for there is one holiness of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: seeing that the same Holy Spirit is so truly and naturally holy that this title is for him natural and true. For mark the words of the Saviour, saying:
'Go therefore now, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' (Matt. 28:19). For just as the name of the Father is a true name, and the name of the Son is true; so the name of the Holy Spirit is true. And how the name of the Father is said to be true, we shall be able to know, if we observe how he is called the true God. II. Many are called gods, but they are not truly gods; and I now say nothing of Satan and the demons and their like, who by impious usurpation are called gods. Men too were indeed called gods according to this testimony: 'I have said: Ye are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High' (Ps. 81:6): but how they are not truly gods, the following words make manifest, which run thus:
'But you shall die like men, and shall fall like one of the princes' (Ibid. 7). If therefore, wherever any of the saints are called gods, this comes to them, who live piously and with justice, from the grace of God, especially since the Holy Spirit dwells in them; from which title they fall away, if they do not persevere in walking in the ways of the Lord: no one therefore of creatures is the true God, because no one is naturally God. But God alone is naturally the true God, existing this very thing without beginning and end. By this understanding now of the true God let us understand also the true name of 'father.' Among men one is called a father from the time he has begotten a son:
but although he has begotten a son of himself, yet he is not properly a true father, to whom this title has accrued, and this very thing bestowed by God: who indeed is called father just so long as his son lives. For as he obtained the title of father when a son was born of him, so also at the death of his son he loses the title of father. But God alone is properly a true Father, who without beginning and end is Father. For he did not at some time begin to be what he is as Father; but he is always Father, always having a Son begotten of himself; just as he is also always true God, persevering without beginning and end. Therefore, just as he alone obtains the title of true God, who alone is called Father without beginning and end; so let us understand also the true title of the Son of God.
For among men he who is a son began to be what he is as a son, and at the death of his father he loses this title. Frequently too he passes from the title of son into the title of father, when he has begotten a son: the proper and true title of son is therefore not in a creature, who both began to be a son, and can have this title only by the death of his father, or when he himself is transferred into the title of father, even before the lot of death comes. But the Son of God alone is a true son, existing this without beginning, without end, always having a Father, and never himself, inasmuch as he is the only-begotten, receiving by begetting the title of father.
Whence also the proper and true title of son is in the Son of God alone, having this naturally, just as he is also naturally true God. If then we have learned how the proper and true title of father is, and how the proper and true title of son is; it follows that we should understand likewise how the proper and true title of the Holy Spirit is. III. Namely, since the Holy Spirit is this very thing naturally, without beginning, without end; for never would the title of the Holy Spirit be joined with the true titles of the Father and of the Son by equal authority of name, if the proper and true title of the Holy Spirit were not likewise proved. If then this title is for him proper and true and natural, without beginning and end;
the Holy Spirit therefore is not a creature, who has thus the proper and true title of Holy Spirit, as no creature can have. And further, when the Lord commands that the nations be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, it is most manifest that the Holy Spirit is not a creature, whether from that very fellowship which he has together with the Father and the Son; or because the Lord would never command that anyone be baptized in the name of a creature: for much would be derogated from the divine power, if together with the confession of the divine name there were set also an equal confession of a creature. And well it is, that he set one name, saying: 'In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit';
that one principal authority of the indivisible and perfect Trinity might be believed. For how could the Holy Spirit be believed to be separated from the principal authority, when we read it written of him in the fiftieth Psalm: 'And with thy principal Spirit confirm me' (Ps. 50:14)? Therefore by this also it is shown that the principality of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one: since also in every creation he is found a partner with the Father and the Son. Take meanwhile even one testimony: 'By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their power' (Ps. 32:6). And by this too, then, it is shown that the Holy Spirit is not a creature; since he too with the Father and the Son is approved as Creator.
I will say fully that the Holy Spirit is both God and Lord, having been taught by the elder men of the Church, who, themselves first instructed in the testimonies of the divine Scriptures by living apostolic men, handed them down to their posterity. I too would set forth one by one each of those testimonies, were it not that to a faithful soul the divinity of the Holy Spirit would shine forth even from these things which have been briefly intimated above: especially since now my purpose is not so much a disputation about the Holy Spirit, as that a pious confession concerning his divine name might be marked out. Yet this I will add toward a summary proof of his divinity, that the Holy Spirit is proved to be God even by this very thing, by which it is shown that he is not a creature. For everything that exists is either divinity
or a creature: but the Holy Spirit, existing this very thing, without beginning and end, is not a creature: therefore the Holy Spirit is a thing of divinity, because he is the incorruptible and unchangeable and everlasting Spirit of God. There is therefore one divinity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, just as there is also one holiness of the same perfect and inseparable Trinity. IV. But here let us make an end: for in so far as anyone wishes to speak more intently of the faith from the sacred Scriptures, in so far as there will be no lack of what to speak. But this I do not doubt, that if perchance some eloquent man should read these very things, he will find the fault of unpolished speech;
yet not, if he is faithful, an error of pious confession, which indeed, granted in us by the grace of God, we desire to vindicate even unto death, by the help of him who granted it, without the stain of the communion of heretics and prevaricators, because, with God as witness, we fear to be found partakers of their condemnation. Let him see to it, if anyone thinks that he cannot be made guilty of their fellowship, having confidence in his own conscience, because he vindicates the faith entire, so that he himself has never been a prevaricator of that faith: yet I in the cause of God am compelled to fear more cautiously; since concerning those very men we read this caution:
'A heretical man, after one admonition, avoid; knowing that such a one is perverted, and sins, and is condemned by his own judgment' (Tit. 3:10-11). And concerning the punishment of prevaricators we read, Isaiah saying: 'And all flesh shall come to worship before me in Jerusalem, saith the Lord God. And the saints shall go forth, and shall see the members of the men who have prevaricated against me. Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched: and they shall be for a vision to all flesh' (Isa. 66:23-24). And the Apostle also says: 'Do not bear the yoke together with unbelievers' (2 Cor. 6:14); for elsewhere too the same Apostle, after the description of evil men,