'I will hear what the Lord God shall speak in me' (Ps. 84:9). Shall He who is called God and Lord by the prophet and even by the apostle, having the power of His own dominion taken away, be made subject to the prophets? God forbid; for He who by His own power conferred the gifts of graces upon the apostles or the prophets, shall not be subjected in power to another's, the apostle Peter affirming: 'Prophecy,' he says, 'was never brought at any time by the will of man, but men spoke filled by the Holy Spirit' (2 Pet. 1:21). And in Solomon: 'It is not in man's power to restrain the spirit, neither is it subject to him, since he is mortal' (Eccl. 8:8). And in the Maccabees:
'Heliodorus indeed was carrying out what he had determined, being present in the same place with his attendants near the treasury; but the omnipotent Spirit, the Spirit of all power, made a great manifestation of His coming' (2 Macc. 3:23). For if your mind were illumined by interior light, never would such things be uttered by you concerning the power of the Holy Spirit: since He who filled the prophets by His own power, that they might foretell things to come, surely could not have been subject to the prophets. CHAPTER V. Where they say that the Holy Spirit, in searching, does not know the things that are of God. If they say to you: The Holy Spirit searches out hidden things for this reason, that He does not know what is certain, but, by searching, desires to come to know what He knows less. Reply.
The Holy Spirit, in searching the things that are of God, is not proved inferior to the Father or the Son; because the Godhead itself, when it searches those things which are of its own Spirit, is judged by no Christian to be inferior to the Holy Spirit — the prophet saying: 'I meditated in the night with my heart, and I exercised myself and searched my spirit' (Ps. 76:7). And the Apostle: 'No one knows the things of a man, but the spirit of a man which is in him. So also the things of God no one knows, but the Spirit of God' (1 Cor. 2:11). Hear, O heretic, that the Holy Spirit is not ignorant of the things that are of God, but rather manifests to those who believe in Him the knowledge of God which He Himself spiritually knows. CHAPTER VI. Where it is said: 'He shall glorify me, because he shall receive of mine.'
If they say to you that which the Son said concerning the Holy Spirit: 'He shall glorify me, because he shall receive of mine' (John 16:14). Reply. If you wish to recognize of what sort and how great is the power of the Holy Spirit, you can learn all things from the teaching of the apostle Paul, who himself says: 'To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit unto profit: to one indeed is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith in the same Spirit; to another the gift of healings in the one Spirit; to another the workings of powers; to another prophecy; to another the discerning of spirits; to another kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of words' (1 Cor. 12:7).
'All these things one and the same Spirit works, distributing to each one severally as he wills' (1 Cor. 12:11). And the Lord in the Gospel: 'Marvel not,' he says, 'that I said to you, you must be born again; for the Spirit breathes where it wills, and thou hearest its voice, but knowest not whence it comes or whither it goes' (John 3:7). And the Apostle: 'For if the word spoken by angels was made firm, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation' (Heb. 2:2)?
'Which (salvation), having received its beginning to be declared by the Lord, was confirmed among us by those who heard it, God bearing witness with signs and wonders and various powers, and distributions of the Holy Spirit according to his own will.' Since, then, you are not ignorant that the Holy Spirit has, by His own will, distributed to each of His own the gifts noted above, how do you maintain that He, as though possessing none of these, received them all from the Son — He who sent the Lord Himself, and filled the prophets and apostles with His own power? CHAPTER VII. Where they say that the Holy Spirit did not speak of Himself before the ages. If they say of the Holy Spirit that He did not speak of Himself, but uttered the things which He heard from the Son (John 16:13). Reply.
We, therefore, who confess the Holy Spirit to be God and Lord, show that He spoke not by the command of another, but by His own power, the apostle Paul, the teacher of the Gentiles, bearing witness: 'Be zealous,' he says, 'for spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy. For he that speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God; for no one hears: for the Spirit speaks mysteries' (1 Cor. 14:1). And the Lord said to His disciples: 'When they shall deliver you up, take no thought what you shall speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what you shall say; for it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you' (Matt. 10:19). And Mark the Evangelist:
'When they shall lead you, delivering you up, take no thought what you shall speak, but whatever shall be given you in that hour, that speak: for it is not you that speak, but the Holy Spirit' (Mark 13:11). From this, therefore, you ought to conclude that the Son and the Holy Spirit are not diverse from one another in the nature of deity, since they appear to be conjoined to each other in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. CHAPTER VIII. Where they say that the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples not of Himself, but by the breathing of the Son. But if they say that the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples not of His own accord, but by the breathing of the Son.
Reply. From this you cannot establish any diversity between the Son and the Holy Spirit, since you see that our same Lord and Saviour filled the hearts of the disciples not with a Spirit foreign to Himself, but with His own; and He bestowed not an inferior, but a coequal Spirit upon His own, so that one Spirit might breathe in Himself and in those who cleave to Him in faith. 'He who cleaves to a harlot,' says the apostle Paul, 'is one body; but he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit' (1 Cor. 6:16). We, therefore, show that the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples of His own spontaneous will, and filled them with His own power; and we teach this from the book which contains the Acts of the Apostles.
'When the days of Pentecost were fully come,' he says, 'they were all together in one place; and suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a mighty rushing wind, and it filled all the place in which they were sitting; and there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, which also sat upon each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit' (Acts 2:1). And again: 'But Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looking upon him, said: O thou full of all guile and deceit, son of the devil, enemy of all justice, why dost thou seek to pervert the ways of the Lord, which are right' (Acts 13:10)? And the angel to Zacharias: 'Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard: behold, thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John;
he shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb' (Luke 1:13). Likewise there: 'And Zacharias his father was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied' (Luke 1:67). Likewise there: 'Elizabeth his mother, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke, blessing God.' From these testimonies, therefore, recognize at last that the Spirit whom the disciples received from the breath of the Saviour is not proved to have a substance inferior to the Son; for we know of no one remaining in his own proper nature who has a spirit inferior to himself, or one coming from another material, which he might use for supplying the rest of his members;
but that he can, from his own proper Spirit by which he himself subsists, fill or govern (as we have said) his other members — of this no one doubts. CHAPTER IX. Where the Holy Spirit is said to be compared to a breath (wind). But if they say that which is written: 'The Spirit proceeds from me, and I have made every breath' (Isa. 57:16). Reply. The breath which the Lord recalls that He made, we believe was not the Holy Spirit, but we confess it to be the spirit of the creature, which living things received that they might be able to subsist: for we do not read that the Holy Spirit was made by the Son, whom we know to have been, together with the Son, the Maker of all things:
for if, in making those things which were to be made, the Holy Spirit (like the Son) did not use His own proper power, how did He by His own will establish those things which He foresaw with prescient majesty were to be established? This very thing the patriarch Job proves in the book of his discourses: 'By the Spirit of the Lord,' he says, 'is the ice given upon the earth, and he governs the water as it pleases him, and he waters the grain in the clouds, and the cloud scatters his light, and it is turned about in a circuit by the helms (of his governance) to perform all things which he has commanded it, because these have been appointed by God upon the earth' (Job 37:10). And the Apostle: 'Who works,' he says, 'all things in all' (1 Cor. 12:6). And in the Acts:
'It has seemed good,' the apostles say, 'to the Holy Spirit and to us, to lay upon you no further burden' (Acts 15:28). For that He sent the same apostles where He willed, and forbade them whence He willed, is also taught from the same book: 'When they had fasted and prayed,' he says, 'they laid hands on them, and sent them away' (Acts 13:3). They therefore, sent away by the Holy Spirit, came to Seleucia. And again: 'But while Peter was thinking about the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him: Arise and go with them, nothing doubting; for I have sent them' (Acts 10:19). And that He also forbade is taught thus: 'They came to Phrygia and the region of Galatia, being forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia' (Acts 16:6).
For the Holy Spirit is proved to be of such surpassing power that the angels and archangels, who daily stand and dwell in the sight of God the Father and of His only Son, desire to look upon Him too — that is, into the Spirit Himself, according to the sentence of the apostolic preaching — with soft and, so to speak, stealthy glances; the apostle Peter affirming: 'Of which salvation,' he says, 'the prophets have inquired, who prophesied of the grace to come in you, searching into what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Jesus Christ in them did signify' (1 Pet. 1:10). And below: 'On which things the angels desire to look' (1 Pet. 1:12).
Do thou, therefore, hold Him in reverence, and honour Him as God; and do not compare Him to the breath of man, or to any kind whatsoever, by the coming of whose inbreathing we believe that our bodies shall be raised again at the last day from the tomb. For if (which God forbid) He had been a creature, surely Paul, when he was enumerating in order the supernal and invisible creatures — that is, thrones, dominations, principalities and powers — would also have named Him principally among them. CHAPTER X. Where they say that the Son of God and Lord is compared to the Holy Spirit. If they say to you: As the Father is God and Lord to His Son, so the Son is Lord and God to the Holy Spirit. Reply.
We recall that we have already set forth very many testimonies concerning the person of the Holy Spirit, that He is called God and Lord, so that now we ought to add nothing more. But lest it be imputed to sloth, or lest you reckon that we are shirking the weighty burden of your proposition, by however much He Himself shall grant for His own defence, we teach the wavering minds — not by our own words, but by divine oracles, He Himself bestowing them — the deity and dominion naturally implanted in Him, the prophet Isaiah saying: 'Jacob did not hear the Lord, who redeemed him, and took him up, and exalted him' (Isa. 63:9). And below: 'But they provoked the Holy Spirit, and he turned himself to be their adversary' (Isa. 63:10). And Jeremiah:
'Christ the Lord, the breath (spirit) of our countenance, was taken in their corruptions, under whose shadow we live among the nations' (Lam. 4:20). And the apostle Peter said to Ananias: 'While it remained, did it not remain to thee; and when it was sold, was it not in thy power? Why hast thou wished to tempt the Holy Spirit, that thou shouldst withhold part of the price of the field' (Acts 5:4)? And below: 'Thou hast not lied to men, but to God.' And the Apostle: 'But when one shall be converted to God, the veil shall be taken away; now the Lord is the Spirit' (2 Cor. 3:16). From this, O faithless one, thou oughtest to recognize that He who is called God and Lord is, in that very title of deity, made coequal to the Father and the Son. CHAPTER XI. Where they say that in the third place the Holy Spirit is named by the Father and the Son.
If they say to you that the Holy Spirit is lesser in this, that He is named in the third place after the Father and the Son. Reply. The Holy Spirit will not, because He is named in the third place, be lesser than the Father and the Son; for since, as we have said above, the Lord named the water in a higher place than the Holy Spirit, He surely did not thereby show the water — which He set first — to be higher than the Holy Spirit. For it is the custom of divine Scripture to name first those things which are last, and to recount last those which are first; as is written in Genesis: 'I am the God of Isaac and of Abraham thy fathers' (cf. Exod. 3:6; Lev. 26:42). For Luke the Evangelist also (chapter
III), in recounting the origin of our Lord and Saviour — that is, of Joseph and of Mary his mother — beginning upwards from Joseph all the way to Adam the first man, who was made by God, wove the account together; and surely there is no Joseph in the human race, who was called the father of Christ according to the flesh, who could be preferred to Adam the first man. But, that we may satisfy your ill-ordered propositions, we also show that the Holy Spirit is named by the Father and the Son in the first place, the Apostle bearing witness: 'One body,' he says, 'and one Spirit, as you are called in one hope of your calling; one God, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all' (Eph. 4:4).
The Holy Spirit is assuredly not inferior to the Father and the Son, because He is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son; and on account of the substance of His Spirit, which abides in itself, they cannot be called in part perfect and in part summoned to imperfection. CHAPTER XII. Where they say that the Holy Spirit is neither begotten nor unbegotten. If they say to you: Show whence the Holy Spirit draws His origin, whom you profess to be neither unbegotten like the Father, nor begotten like the Son. Reply. The certain and manifest origin of the Holy Spirit is the Father and the Son, who is believed by the faithful to be neither unbegotten with the Unbegotten, nor begotten with the Only-begotten, but is proved by the words of the sacred Scriptures to be the Spirit of the Father.
King Nebuchadnezzar in the prophet Daniel saying: 'Daniel, whose name is Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god, has in him the Holy Spirit of God' (Dan. 4:5). Likewise he himself: 'All the wise men of my kingdom could not declare to me the interpretation of my dream; but thou, Daniel, art able, because the holy Spirit of God is in thee.' Likewise there: 'Behold, a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the Spirit of God.' And in Zechariah: 'Yet receive ye my ordinances, and my words which I command in my spirit to my servants the prophets' (Zech. 1:6). Likewise there: 'Not by great strength, nor by might, but by my spirit, saith the Lord' (Zech. 4:6). And the Apostle to the Romans:
5:242
Vosautemnonestisincarne, sedinspiritu, sitamenSpiritusDeihabitatinvobis (Rom. VIII. 9). EtadGalatas : QuoniamrstisfiliiDei, misitDeusspiritumFiliisuiin 441 cordanostraclamantemAbbaPater (Gnl. IV, 6). EtadEphesios : NolitecontristarcSpiritumsanctumDei (Ephes. iv, 20). EtadPhilippenses : ScioenimquodhocmihiproficitinsalutempervestiasobsecrationesetsubministrationesspiritusJesuChrist (Philip. I, 19). EtPetrusapostolus : Dequasaluteexquisieruntatquescrutatisuntprophetæ, quiveuturamin . vobisgratiamprophetaverunt, scrutantesinquibus, velqualitemporesignificarihaberetineisspiritusJcsuChrisii (/ Petr. 1, 10).
'But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you' (Rom. 8:9). And to the Galatians: 'Because you are sons of God, God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father' (Gal. 4:6). And to the Ephesians: 'Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God' (Eph. 4:30). And to the Philippians: 'For I know that this shall fall out to me unto salvation, through your prayers, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ' (Phil. 1:19). And the apostle Peter: 'Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and diligently searched, who prophesied of the grace to come in you, searching into what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Jesus Christ in them did signify' (1 Pet. 1:10).
And in the book of Judges: 'And they came and pitched their camp in the valley of Jezreel, and the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon' (Judg. 6:33). Consider, O wretched ones, that He who is named in the first place by the Father and the Son, and in many places of divine Scripture is called the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, is not proved inferior to the Father and the Son. CHAPTER XIII. Where they say that the Holy Spirit did not receive life from the Father as the Son did. If they say to you: We read that the Son received life from the Father, that He might so give it to those who believe; but of the Holy Spirit we read nothing of the kind, and in this we judge Him to be lesser than the Son. Reply.
Because He is called the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, He is without doubt the Spirit of life, just as the Father and the Son, as is proved by the divine readings, the prophet Ezekiel saying: 'And when the living creatures lifted themselves up from the earth, the wheels also leaped up; and wherever the clouds went, and along with that the spirit of the wheel was lifted up with them, because the spirit of life was in the wheels' (Ezek. 1:19). And the Apostle to the Romans: 'For the law,' he says, 'of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus' (Rom. 8:2). Likewise there: 'For the prudence of the flesh is death, but the prudence of the spirit is life and peace' (Rom. 8:6). Likewise there: 'The body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of justice' (Rom. 8:10). And to the Corinthians:
'The first Adam was made into a living soul, the last Adam into a life-giving spirit' (1 Cor. 15:45). Likewise in the second epistle: 'The letter kills, but the spirit gives life' (2 Cor. 3:6). And 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). Ezekiel assuredly attests the like in the very same words and syllables concerning the dry bones of the dead (Ezek. 37:10). Consider, I pray, consider, that it is not in vain that he said 'the spirit of life'; and He who, according to the testimonies cited above, bestows life upon the living and the dead, is in no way proved inferior to the Father and the Son. CHAPTER XIV. Where they say:
Show that the Holy Spirit can proceed from the Father. If they say to you: Show that the Holy Spirit could proceed from the Father or the Son. Reply. If your hearts, now hardened by the vice of unbelief, were willing to be brought to the softness of our belief, you would most easily recognize that the Spirit can proceed from God the Father: for the Father is God, and the Spirit of God proceeds from Him; He is almighty, and the Spirit of omnipotence proceeds from Him; He is light, and the Spirit of light proceeds from Him; He is power, and the Spirit of power proceeds from Him; He is wise, and the Spirit of wisdom proceeds from Him; He is prudence, and the Spirit of prudence proceeds from Him;
He is counsel, and the Spirit of counsel proceeds from Him; He is fortitude, and the Spirit of fortitude proceeds from Him; He is peace, and the Spirit of peace proceeds from Him; He is charity, and the Spirit of charity proceeds from Him; He is knowledge, and the Spirit of knowledge proceeds from Him; He is life, and the Spirit of life proceeds from Him; He is upright, and the Spirit of uprightness proceeds from Him; He is good, and the Spirit of goodness proceeds from Him; He is piety, and the Spirit of piety proceeds from Him; He is gentle, and the Spirit of gentleness proceeds from Him; He is a sword, and the sword of the Spirit proceeds from Him. And many other things which, for the sake of brevity, we have omitted, knowing that to the wise much is contained in a few words:
but to the unwise, even if many things be said, they by no means suffice. But lest by your accustomed calumnies and cavils you disturb simple souls, drawing out more carefully from the divine Scriptures the proofs of those things which have been said above, we shall, with the Lord's help, fit together the divine testimonies to all of them, so that those who read may recognize how they answer your perversity. For that the Spirit is God the Son taught in the Gospel, saying: 'God is a Spirit' (John 4:24). And that He is almighty is shown in Solomon (Wis. 7:13), while the Spirit is intimated to be all-powerful and all-foreseeing.
And that the Spirit is light, Ezekiel is witness, when he asserts that the Spirit of the Lord came from the North in a cloud, shining forth like light (Ezek. 1:4). That He is power, the Apostle teaches when he says: 'In the showing forth of the Spirit and of power' (1 Cor. 2:4). That He is called wisdom, Isaiah is witness, when he says that the Son of the Lord was filled with the Spirit of wisdom (Isa. 11:2). That He is called prudence, is shown in the same prophet. That He is called the Spirit of counsel and of fortitude, is declared in the same volume. That He is peace, the Acts of the Apostles bear witness (Acts 9:31). That He is called charity, the apostolic sentence proves. That He is named the Spirit of wisdom, is taught by the announcement of Isaiah.
That He is the Spirit of life, the Apostle teaches, when he foretold that the prudence of the spirit of life is also peace (Rom. 8:6). That He is called upright is shown by the oracles of David, when he prays that a right spirit be renewed within his inward parts (Ps. 50:12). That He is called good, the same prophet shows, who sings as one desiring to be led by the Holy Spirit in the right way (Ps. 26:11). That He is named the Spirit of meekness, the Apostle is witness, when he says that he comes not with a rod, but in the love of the spirit and of meekness (1 Cor. 4:21). That He is called perfect, the same apostle teaches, when he intimates Him to be the judge of all, and the spirit of the just and of the perfect (Heb. 12:23).
That He is called a sword, the same apostle proves, when he pronounces Him to be the word of God (Eph. 6:17). For if they read all these things not with blinded minds, they would neither be in doubt concerning the Son of God, nor would they hesitate concerning the power of the Holy Spirit. CHAPTER XV. Where they say that the Holy Spirit is not diffused everywhere. If they should say to you that the Holy Spirit is not everywhere as the Father and the Son are, but locally fulfils the office enjoined upon Him. Response. But that we may teach the Holy Spirit to be diffused everywhere, we shall search out the testimony of David, from whose prophecy the Holy Spirit is taught to be diffused everywhere, not by places (as you, held fast in heavy sleep, imagine), but by His own power, like the Father and the Son.
He sings at last in the psalm (Ps. 138 [139]:7) and says: Whither shall I go from thy spirit? and whither shall I flee from thy face? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there; and if I descend into hell, thou art present. If I take my wings straight before me, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. And in Solomon: The Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world (Wis. 1:7). Likewise there: Say not, I am hidden from the Spirit of God, and who from on high will be mindful of me? For in a great people I shall not be recognized. For what is my soul in so vast a creation? Behold the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, the abyss and the whole earth, and the things that are in them, are all in his sight.
At his countenance the mountains and the hills and the foundations of the earth shall be moved, and when he shaketh them, they shall be shaken with trembling (Sir. 16:16). And in the Apocalypse: And I saw seven golden candlesticks, and seven lamps upon the head of the seven golden candlesticks, and I said: What are these, Lord? And he said to me: The seven lamps are seven spirits, sent throughout the whole world (Apoc. 1:12). Behold, we have taught that the Holy Spirit is not confined to places, nor bounded by any region, in the manner in which you assert that He is not diffused everywhere: whose voice, as they say according to the Lord, whoever a man may be, he can nevertheless hear, but whence it comes and whither it goes, it is granted to no mortal to know. CHAPTER XVI.
Where they say that the Holy Spirit is properly compared to the morning star (Lucifer). If they should say to you: The Holy Spirit is compared to the morning star, before whom the Father testified that He had begotten the Son, saying: In the splendours of the saints, from the womb before the morning star I begot thee (Ps. 109:3). Or that which Peter the apostle said: Until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts (2 Pet. 1:19). Response. The apostle Peter, when he had set down these things in his Epistle for the instruction of believers, neither said, nor taught, nor commanded to be taught, that the Holy Spirit is properly named the morning star.
But we also, who believe one God in the Trinity, show that our very Lord and Saviour was preached under the figure of this star, not only by the prophets, but also by the apostles. In the book of Numbers also, when by the most impious king Balak, and by Balaam likewise, a false prophet, he had been brought under the title of a reward to curse the people of God, he is shown to have uttered these things not of his own will, but by divine command: There shall arise, he says, a star out of Jacob, and a rod shall spring up out of Israel, and it shall strike all the kingdoms of the earth (Num. 24:17). And in another place: The pillars of heaven trembled at the Lord, and the stars of heaven feared him (Job 26:11).
Since this is his peace and his power, that his star should shine in heaven, to enlighten all who believe in him. These things in the Gospel: We have seen, they say, his star in the east, and are come to adore him (Matt. 2:2). And in the Apocalypse of John the apostle: I am the first and the last (Apoc. 22:13). I am the root and the offspring of David; I am the bright and morning star (ibid. 16). For if, on account of the name of this star, and because he is called the morning star, you contend that the Holy Spirit is less than the Son, do you not also thereby show that the Son, whom we taught above to have been preached in the type of that same star, is inferior to the Holy Spirit?