On the Trinity 1-1 part 9/12

And let it be clear to them what the difference is between that which is eternal without beginning and unchangeably, and that which is eternal from a point in time and changeably; and that this difference is not slight, nor merely some further beauty regarding the substance, but something altogether and entirely distinct.

But let this also be known: that the Holy Spirit has its standing regarding the judgment concerning what is eternal with God the Father, who gave strength to the universe, and with the Son, not with created things.

And having abandoned the worse opinion, let them choose the better.

And let them marvel, instead of at their present notions, at what is truly worthy of marveling.

And let them conduct the time that follows in a better way.

And from the very things by which, in making their arrogant accusation, they harmed themselves, let them from that same source also carry off the benefit of repentance.

For if this word, as indicating something befitting God, was used of God the Father and the Son, it might equally and in like manner be understood also of the Spirit of God.

And here is another point: that none of the eternal things they mentioned is called divine, or a Holy Spirit proceeding from God — that is, some one thing, and not a multitude;

nor is any of them ranked together with the Father and the Son for divine initiation and divine gift; nor — not to mention many other things — has any been deemed worthy of any other honor belonging to deity.

God and the Father was well pleased that all things should be created through his Son, the Word.

And what reproach, as they dream up, is it to his all-holy Spirit that it did not create — if indeed, according to them, it is not, in some ineffable way, a fellow-worker with the Creator just as the Father is? But that every activity and gift — creative, good, and perfect — of his only-begotten Son the Word and of the one Holy Spirit is common to them both, and that all is referred back to the One from whom, and with whom, these blessed hypostases were ineffably manifested — this anyone could most easily learn who makes a quiet examination of the sayings full of wisdom, both those mentioned in various places of this book, and those in the book before it.

And Paul too, who is greater than merely human, declared this plainly, affirming it to the Corinthians:

'But you were washed, but you were justified, but you were sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.' Observe, then, observe: that if the name of the Son is divine — as indeed it is divine — then altogether so too is that of the Holy Spirit.

For he made known one and the same name for both of them.

And that, just as the Holy Spirit ineffably co-created at the beginning, so now too it re-creates.

For 'to be washed' signified 'to be re-created.'

'...having regenerated us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.' No less does the sacred psalmist also require us to know that those who already exist by natural birth are now, in the divine font, spiritually created anew.

'A people that is being created shall praise the Lord.' Therefore the hypostases that have the same honor and activity have also received the same nature, and they differ from one another in nothing as regards deity and power; and they alone are able to be conjoined and ranked together and everywhere conceived of together with the One.

He himself, being the source of both, and not one of the two hypostases whose he is, possesses from himself — without beginning, equally, alike, and ineffably — hypostases that are united to him and continuous with him.

Every argument of these heretics is of the same fashion, just as it is of the same wording, as their stale sophistry now stirred up again — as we shall soon learn by experience from the very chapters that follow.

For if it happens that some word — such as 'eternal' or 'good' — which conveys a divine indication concerning the Trinity in Unity, and which belongs to it wholly and perfectly, has also happened to be said somewhere of a creature, with the qualification due to a creature, they thereby say nothing at all — for what indeed could they say? — concerning God the Father and his Son;

but they immediately, and most foolishly, drag the Holy Spirit down into the class of creatures, instead of most fittingly raising up — to God and the Only-Begotten — those terms which have most appropriately been celebrated by the theologians as applying equally and alike to the Holy Spirit.

And so, though only the arguments on our side in the chapter which we are now pursuing have been set forth in justification — arguments that cannot be surpassed, yet suffice for the whole contest concerning the heretics —

let them either show — a thing heavy indeed even to utter — that a beginning or an end of the Holy Spirit has somewhere been declared by divine oracle;

or, in general, that it had some path toward corruption, as does angelic and human free choice;

or else, as the saying goes, let there be 'an ox upon their tongue.'

So much, then, concerning those matters; but I shall now move on to the subject proposed from the beginning.

...that, being immutable, it is not receptive of either virtue or vice.

Rational creation is receptive of both virtue and vice, as we find in the case of incorporeal beings: as we said before, the approved angels remain within virtue, while those who were cast out fell into vice;

and in the case of embodied beings, as we ourselves are.

But the divine Spirit, being above virtue and glory — or rather, itself being the very fount of the highest virtue — is receptive of none of these things, just as neither the Father nor the Son is.

And if it is not receptive of change, neither is it of a different will.

And if this is so — for he does all things whatsoever the Father wills — then neither is he of a different essence.

And from this, then, it is concluded both that it is not a creature, but stands unvaryingly toward God the Father and his Son, and that from it we come to know God, from whom it naturally proceeded, that he is also in us, as it is written.

...that it is holy by nature, and sanctifies and justifies; for creation is sanctified and justified by God, who is holy by nature.

For creation is receptive of being sanctified and justified, not the one who confers it.

But the Holy Spirit, since it is set apart —

— from creation, but is joined in nature to him from whom it has proceeded, concerning whom we have also been instructed in the mystery, as it is written:

'Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.'

And since he cares for and provides for all things, even for those who are culpable themselves —

he sanctifies and justifies and makes wise, and bestows every kind of heavenly virtue;

yet he is not himself justified or made wise by another — just as neither the Father, who exists from himself by nature, nor his Son, who shares that same nature, is justified or made wise by another.

so that for this reason he is rightly celebrated as 'holy in himself' and 'Spirit of holiness' — that is, holy by nature and of himself;

and 'divine Spirit' — that is, God by nature;

and 'breath of the Almighty' — that is, breathed forth from his hypostasis, consubstantial with the Almighty;

so that even this one designation alone shows him to be both consubstantial with God the Father, and sanctifying, and not to be contained even in thought.

For this very reason Paul, who was able both to speak and to set forth patterns of the faith, introduced this teaching, setting forth at once this very chapter which we are now treating, and at the same time the fact that the Holy Spirit shares in common with God the Father the great gifts and the regeneration in baptism.

and further, that the name 'God' belongs to the Trinity as one and equally;

and that, when invoked, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit always work with equal power.

Writing to the Corinthians, he proclaims:

'But you were washed, but you were justified, but you were sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.' Therefore those who share in him — that is, those who are deemed worthy of being sanctified, justified, and made wise by him — are called, as the same apostle teaches the Hebrews:

'partakers of the Holy Spirit.' And he also writes to the Ephesians:

'In whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.' For it is clear that those who are sealed — that is, those who are sanctified — are the ones who partake, but are not themselves partaken of.

For indeed, if the Holy Spirit or the Son happened to be a creature, where would be the need for a creature to sanctify a creature and effect its fulfillment, when God the Father had already sufficiently sanctified it? We ourselves, then, being created beings, and knowing that this anointing belongs to the Uncreated, do not supply sanctification of our own accord, but rather say:

And I shall now proceed to another consistent and forceful argument, after which it will not be possible even for those practiced in shamelessness to persist in doing this.

The Master of all, having given a clear and unqualified command concerning God the Father and himself—

'baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son' — did not simply add:

'and of the Spirit,' but rather added:

'of the Holy Spirit' — so that he made mention of it not, so to speak, in a lowered manner, but even in an elevated one, because that Spirit is, by nature, what the self-complete hypostases are, which the one name signified — the same name by which the Spirit too was jointly designated;

and correspondingly, because the Holy Spirit stands to be that very thing which, in respect of deity, the Father and his Son are;

with whom he was jointly mentioned — a thing which, as the saying goes, is evident even to a blind man.

But this matter pertains to a fuller theological discussion;

but in order that it may easily be believed that it belongs to deity alone both to be called, and to be, holy and righteous by nature, and moreover to sanctify and to justify its own creatures, similar things have been sung in praise of the Father, as for instance when the Son himself says, in John:

'Holy Father, keep them in your name.' And again:

'Sanctify them in your truth;'

'your word is truth.' And again:

'righteous Father.' And as when the prophets prophesy — Ezekiel, for instance:

'and let them know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.' And David, in the tenth Psalm:

'The Lord is righteous, and he loves righteousness;'

'his eyes behold the upright.' And another Psalm says:

'and all who are sanctified are under your hands, and are under you.' And as when Paul writes his epistles — to the Thessalonians, for instance:

But may the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and to the Romans:

'Who is he that condemns?' And to the Hebrews:

that the virgin may be holy in body and spirit—as though it were possible either that by her own natural disposition she should not be holy, or that she should be sanctified according to virtue

And here he calls the disposition 'spirit,' and the practical activity 'body,' in accordance with Isaiah's prophecy:

'and those who err in spirit shall come to know understanding'—that is, those who err in practice or in disposition.

But concerning the Son, as when he is extolled:

'One is holy, one is Lord, Jesus Christ'; and as the Acts relate:

'of the coming of the Righteous One'; and as Peter said:

'Christ died for sinners, the righteous for the unrighteous.' From such oracles, then, it was necessary, if they wished to act justly, to be led by the hand to hymn the Spirit as God:

This, however, they do not do; instead they claim that the angels were not sanctified, and yet are holy:

not perceiving that the angels too, like men, were indeed sanctified—which is true:

for, being created, they are constituted as lesser than the men who have been sanctified by God and who partake of him.

Note: that it is participated in substantially—

this belongs to God alone.

Creation is not, in its essence, participable by the rational soul in such a way as to dwell within it:

for to be participated in that manner belongs to God alone.

But the Holy Spirit is participable in essence, just as the Father and the Son are, as was stated in the first book.

Since here too, once the Father dwells in the worthy, how could it be otherwise necessary—unless on account of the unity of the divine nature and its fulfillment toward us—that the Son and the Holy Spirit should also enter in and run in together with him? Certainly no one would ever choose to say that a multitude of, as it were, gods dwells in us, but rather that, according to the oneness within the unity of the Godhead, the three hypostases exist as one.

Note: that the Good, of itself generative, is the source of the goodnesses, truths, wisdoms, and loves found within creation—

and in him is conceived together every good gift and every perfect gift.

Creation possesses the good because the Trinity within the one Godhead, which is itself the Good, has imparted it to creation.

And it is one thing to possess something good by participation, according to one's own measure, and quite another to be, by nature, the primary and immeasurable Good itself:

and creation is neither interwoven with, nor ranked together with, the one Creator, the primally-working Good:

the Good found within creation, which all things desire while itself desires nothing—even though it is said in the Gospel:

'the good man brings forth good out of the good treasure of his heart'

for he does not, so to speak, mean by this the good that dwells within the heart and is properly good in the strict sense, but rather that which is conjoined and fitting to creation.

For that primal Good multiplies and, in its generosity, bestows goodnesses upon its own creatures, so that by this means each of the things that exist may be preserved and may remain in the rank it was allotted to occupy:

and it itself is the one Good, the cause of all good things to all:

and on account of it the good below, in creation, is done:

and it preserves all things in which it is present, just as evil, arising from our own free choice, brings about their corruption.

Perceiving this, even those outside [the faith] say, as it were:

'The wicked have this greatest good within themselves:'

'for while attempting to harm others, they themselves are the first to reap the fruits of their own wickedness.'

But the Holy Spirit, as has been said before, being itself the Good that needs nothing beyond itself, and the Good that is wholly and ever directed toward all, and not secondary to the one and primary Good, has received testimonies equal to those of the Father and the Son concerning this—as was demonstrated in the first book—and as Ezra, who spoke boldly before the divine goodness, knowing that even should one stumble, no suffering comes from it, prophesied:

'and you gave your good Spirit to instruct them.' And Matthew and Luke, signifying that this very divine goodness is, in essence, the Spirit, and that in him is conceived together every good gift and every perfect gift—the one wrote:

'how much more will the Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?' And the other:

'how much more will the Father who is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?' For it is proper to a mutable—that is, a created—nature to be made good, or sanctified, or made wise by another, and not to possess these things of itself immutably.

And God also, showing in Isaiah that no one will ever receive his spiritual blessings unless he is first found filled with the wisdom and understanding of the Holy Spirit, said:

'I will put my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessings upon your children.' Following this, Paul wrote:

for the unending kingdom above is conceived together with the Spirit of God, since it is not alien to him, on account of his mutual interconnection with the Father and the Son.

And again, in the same epistle, he confirms this, writing:

'for the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.' Nor did this escape Peter's notice either,

for in defending himself against those who accused him regarding the meeting he had had with Cornelius, he said:

'If, then, God gave them the same gift as he gave us also at the beginning, when he granted them the Holy Spirit—'

'...who was I, that I could hinder God?' And again:

'and God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us also;'

'and he made no distinction between us and them, having purified their hearts by faith.' That is to say:

the outpouring of the Holy Spirit—one might say, his irresistible and ungrudging visitation—is the cause of prophecy, of renewal, of heavenly good things, and of the comprehension of the beauty of divine truth.

For as it seems to the Apostle:

'the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.' Whence he also writes again:

'for the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.' Since, then, the goodness of the Trinity in unity is one, many good things are engendered for us from it:

just as truth and righteousness and wisdom above are one—I mean the truth, righteousness, and wisdom on high—according to the text:

'you are mighty, O Lord, and your truth is round about you'—which truth is the Only-Begotten God; and according to the text:

'to God alone who is wise'—many truths and righteousnesses and wisdoms are multiplied for us from above, according to the text:

'the Lord seeks out truth,' and:

'the Lord is righteous, and he has loved righteous deeds,' and:

'a multitude of the wise is the salvation of the world,' and:

'he who walks with the wise will become wise.' It is therefore clear that the Spirit of God, in his very being, is constituted the good Spirit, and the Spirit of wisdom and truth, and the Spirit of the invisible and uncompounded God and Father.

Note: that creation is nowhere written to be 'benevolent'—

for this properly and exclusively belongs to the consubstantial Trinity alone.

'not being angry with us to the end, nor bearing a grudge forever, nor dealing with us according to our sins, nor repaying us according to our iniquities,' according to Psalm 102:

'but you spare all things, because all things are yours, O Master who loves the living,' as it is said:

so that on account of these things he is called both our Master and our Father, his providential care being blended with power.

for there is no title more proper to God than 'Father,' 'benevolent,' 'good,' and 'holy.'

The Son is benevolent—he who, for our sake, we being the works of his revered and intelligible hands,

emptied himself, taking the form of a servant; as the Apostle writes to Titus:

'but when the kindness and benevolence of God our Savior appeared...' And whoever renders to him what is fitting for the Only-Begotten God departs having received more than he had hoped for.

The Holy Spirit of God is benevolent, according to Wisdom, which speaks thus:

'for the spirit of wisdom is benevolent, yet will not acquit the righteous.' For it did not overlook human nature as it was perishing:

but visited it in person, guiding it, teaching it all truth, renewing us, bestowing the divine gifts of grace, and having from the beginning shown such great care for that which is according to the image, that it also bears this very title as a token of its surpassing goodness.

For heaven, earth, and sea are indeed great elements;

and great too is the rational creation, that of the angels and of every supramundane power;

but it did not deem it fitting to take its name from any one of these; rather, from its goodness toward man the Trinity has the name 'loving toward mankind.'

That it is by nature free and not a slave;

and as God and Lord it sets free and makes men sons.

Creation stands as a slave of the Master who fashioned it, since it does not of itself possess freedom, and is able to grant it neither to itself nor to others;

but he, as Master and as free by nature, wherever he is, and upon whomever he comes to dwell, grants the freedom which he has.

For only things that are made are subject to the yoke of slavery;

and that which is not a slave is not a created thing either;

and that which is not a created thing is by nature God.

A faithful witness to these things is the Apostle, writing to the Corinthians in the second epistle:

'Now the Lord is the Spirit;'

'and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.' And to Timothy:

'For God has not given us a spirit of slavery, but a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.' And to the Romans:

'For you did not receive again a spirit of slavery leading to fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, by which we cry out:'

'Abba, Father.' And to the Galatians:

'God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying out:'

'so that you are no longer a slave but a son.' Just as, then, we were set free upon hearing from the Son:

'You are no longer a slave, but free.' And again:

'in the freedom with which the Son has set you free' — so likewise, on account of the identity of essence and lordship, we are set free by the Spirit through the saying already mentioned:

'and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.' That he commands and does not merely serve: creation, both the intelligible and the sensible, serves, and does not command of itself;

as it is said concerning the angels:

'mighty in strength, performing his word.' But the Holy Spirit of God commands the prophets and apostles with sovereign authority, as God and Master, as shall be demonstrated in the chapters that follow.

That he gives strength: creation is itself given strength by the all-mighty and all-powerful divine might, but does not itself give strength; for it has received a power sufficient only for itself, and has no power to impart it to its fellow servants.

But the Spirit of God gives strength by his own generative, nourishing, and unfailing might, since he is Creator and not a creature.

For the Savior says in Acts:

'But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you' — since, apart from his coming to dwell in us, we have no power or hope at all toward God.

One must further observe, first, that this signifies that the coming of the Holy Spirit took place according to his own authority;

and second, that he did not come announcing himself, but was foretold beforehand by the great God and Savior himself.

'But you, stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.' And this was the power of the Holy Spirit.

And Paul writes to the Romans words which it is not easy for anyone to admire or interpret worthily, especially in a hasty reading:

'I have, then, confidence in Christ Jesus toward God;'

'for I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, by word and deed, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Holy Spirit.' That he is truthful:

which is proper to God alone. Creation does not always speak the truth, but from its own disposition has a capacity for change, and even, at times, for lying —

as, among the incorporeal beings, the devil does, and among fleshly beings, as it is written:

'every man is a liar.' And:

'You will destroy all who speak lies.' Indeed, even those outside [the faith] have written: 'For father God will not be a helper to those who speak falsehoods.'

But among the saints [this is not so], as Paul said concerning the apostles:

'But when I saw that they were not walking uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all' — these are the words that he spoke.

For truly, to be always free from falsehood belongs to the divine nature alone.

'that,' he says, 'by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us.' Now the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, sharing in nature with the Father and the Son, shares in all things — even, indeed, in freedom from falsehood.

For he is the Spirit of truth of God, as was said before, speaking by the one will of the Father and of the Son and of himself, and not speaking from himself alone, as the Son testified concerning him, saying:

'He will not speak on his own authority.' That he is truth: because he is not at variance with the one Godhead.

The Holy Spirit is called Truth, just as the Father and the Son are, since he belongs to that same one Godhead, having in himself nothing divided or discordant.

The Son testifies concerning the Father and himself, saying:

'Father, your word is truth.' And again:

'I am the life and the truth.' And concerning the Holy Spirit, as was said before —

That no one knows the things of God except the Holy Spirit, and that, conversely, on account of his equality with the Father, God likewise knows the things of the Holy Spirit.

Creation does not know the things of God;

for these things surpass it, and no creature, even one of the most eminent, dares to venture toward such knowledge;

since it is altogether impossible for that which does not share the same nature, and does not possess the same knowledge, as God, to know the things of God — as the Savior taught, saying in John:

'The servant does not know what his master is doing.' And as Peter wrote:

'things which have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things into which angels long to look.' That the Holy Spirit knows these things as God who is of one substance [with the Father], the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians, as has already been said.

And again, setting forth the majesty of the Spirit and his equality with the Father, he writes of him as of equal weight with the Father:

'And he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit.' For just as, in saying something great concerning the Father, he said that the Father knows the mind of the Spirit, so too, setting forth the fellowship of the Holy Spirit with him in nature and will, and the equality of his worth and power, he wrote that he alone knows the things of the Father, and searches his depths, and knows his unknowable thoughts, which he must reveal to the worthy whenever it is fitting.

And Peter, as has already been said, wrote:

'the Spirit was sent from heaven;'

let this be understood in the same manner as that saying is understood:

for just as the one [i.e., the Son] was sent as Word, so this one too was sent as the utterance and Spirit of God.

And because it is known that whatever is spoken by Christ or by the Holy Spirit is also spoken by the Father, on account of the one will, such expressions are set down.

For he neither is ignorant nor is sent as a slave, nor does he speak or act or come of himself as one opposed to God.

That no one sees God the Father except the Son alone and the Holy Spirit; and to those who say:

'But is it not written,' one says, 'that the angels see the face of the Father?' — [we reply that] creation does not see God the Father as he truly is;

for to a different nature this is uncontainable and unbearable;

'No one shall see my face and live.' Now the Scriptures say, at times that the Son alone, at times that the Holy Spirit alone, sees or knows God the Father, since the Trinity exists in the unity of Godhead — as when the Savior says in John:

'Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God;'

'he has seen the Father.' Now the Son is from God by nature through begetting, and the Holy Spirit through procession;

for neither does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him; and as, specifically concerning the Holy Spirit, as was said before, Paul writes to the Corinthians, and as Isaiah prophesies:

'the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of knowledge and piety.' 'Is it not written, then,' one says, 'in Matthew, from the words of the Savior:'

'See that you do not despise one of these little ones;'

For I say to you, that their angels in the heavens always behold the face of my Father who is in the heavens. Yes indeed.

But they see him not as great and such as God is, but according to what they themselves can contain.

But the Only-begotten and the Holy Spirit, because of the identity of their Godhead, see him just as the immeasurable and formless God is.

That the Holy Spirit deems creation worthy of adoption;

but he himself proceeds from the very hypostasis of God.

Rational creation, when it becomes worthy of renewal and adoption, is deemed worthy of these things by the all-powerful grace of the Holy Spirit, since he is not a creature but is God, of the same kind as him who first created.

That he does not sing hymns of praise as the rest of creation does;

since he himself belongs among those who are hymned.

All creation, visible and invisible, is commanded by name, by the three youths Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, when they were cast into the furnace in Babylon, to hymn and exceedingly exalt God forever.

Moreover, even the Cherubim and the divine throne — by which is here understood the Seraphim — give glory, inasmuch as they too are part of creation.

'Blessed are you, who sit upon the Cherubim'; and again, instead of mentioning the Seraphim:

'And blessed are you upon the throne of your kingdom, and exceedingly praised and exceedingly exalted forever.' Likewise also by David, moved by the Holy Spirit, in Psalm 102 and in Psalm 148, creation is commanded to praise the Lord.

But the Holy Spirit, like the Son, was not included in that mention, since he too is not a creature but a creator;

nor is he among those who sing hymns, but among those who are hymned even by the Seraphim themselves, who stand round the divine throne with great fear, covering themselves with their wings, and antiphonally crying out with unceasing mouths and unresting voice, thrice 'Holy' for the three hypostases, once 'Lord' for the one lordship;

which things especially demonstrate the deity of the all-praised Spirit.