On the Trinity 2.1–2.2

[Contents of Book 2.] Chapter 1. That the holy Trinity is incomprehensible to both the invisible and the visible creation; that it is present to all; and that all creation is its common work. Chapter 2. That the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God the Father, as our own spirit is ours, and has proceeded from him consubstantially. And against a heretical teaching. Chapter 3. That the Spirit of God has various names, which signify his divine nature and power. And against a heretical opinion. Chapter 4. On the heretics who say: “God is Spirit; how then is the Holy Spirit the Spirit of the Spirit?” And again: “Are not the angels, then,” they say, “from God, and holy, and spirits of God?” Chapter 5. On those who say: “Since the Word of God is Only-begotten,” he says, “what shall we call the Spirit?” And that the Son is attested as only-begotten, the Holy Spirit as one and only; and again the Son as Word, the Holy Spirit as Utterance. And on comparison. And that there is no example … Chapter 6. That everything proper to the Godhead is attested of the Spirit, as follows: 1. That he is not, as the heretics say, the first creature, but God; for the first creature is Satan. 2. That he fills the world and holds all things together. 3. That he is incorruptible. 4. That he is eternal. 5. That, being unchangeable, he admits neither virtue nor vice. 6. That he is holy by nature, and sanctifies and justifies. 7. That he is participated in substantially; and this is proper to God alone. 8. That he is good, himself the begetter of the goodness, truth, wisdom, and love found in creation; and that in him is understood every good gift and every perfect present. 9. That he loves humankind. 10. That he is free by nature and not a slave; and that as God and Lord he sets free and makes sons of God. 11. That he commands and does not serve. 13. That he does not lie, which is proper to God alone. 14. That he is truth, because he does not disagree with the one Godhead. 15. That no one knows the things of God except the Holy Spirit; and that, because of his equality with the Father, God in turn knows the things of the Holy Spirit. 16. That no one sees God the Father except the Son alone and the Holy Spirit. And against those who say: “Is it not written, then,” he says, “that the angels see the face of the Father?” 17. That the Holy Spirit makes creation worthy of adoption, while he himself proceeds from the hypostasis of God. 18. That he does not sing hymns as the rest of creation does, since he is among those to whom hymns are sung. 19. That he is named together with the Father and the Son. And on a heretical objection. 20. That he shares with God the Father and his only-begotten Son in the names, as he does in the substance. 21. That he is one, and not many as creatures are. 22. That because of his consubstantiality and his being without beginning he is written to be water of life, from the … 23. That the Savior was anointed with the Holy Spirit; but if the Spirit were a creature, the Uncreated would not have been anointed with his own handiwork. And that we too have his anointing. Chapter 7. On the divine operations and gifts of the Holy Spirit, as follows: 1. That he gives life. 2. That because of the identity of the Godhead and the equal operation it is written that Christ, who willingly suffered for us in the flesh, was raised sometimes by the Father, sometimes by himself, sometimes by the Holy Spirit. And against a heretical exposition. 3. That he creates and raises from the dead. At the same point, that to sanctify is to create, and more necessary than to create. And against a heretical exposition. 4. That he sanctifies and justifies. 5. That he bestows salvation. 6. That he frees from death and forgives sins. 7. That he works together with the Father and the Son. And that Christ worked signs and wonders and cast out demons in the power of the Spirit, because the Godhead is inseparable. 8. That, like God the Father, the Holy Spirit too is styled God and Master. 9. That together with Christ he will judge all things. 10. That Paul, in the power of the Spirit … 11. That it was by the power of the all-holy Spirit that the heavens were opened and seen by the holy Stephen. 12. That he knows beforehand. Chapter 8. On the Holy Spirit’s own authority, as follows: 1. That he gives the gifts on his own authority, as he wills, and blows where he has chosen. And against … 2. That he appointed the prophets and apostles, sent them on his own authority, and made them speak as he willed. 3. That he gives laws and commands with declarations, as God. And against those who say that it was also written of an angel: “Thus says the angel.” 4. That together with the Father he sends and guides on his own authority. And against those who say: “God guides to himself, but the Spirit to the truth.” Chapter 9. That the Holy Spirit is consubstantial with the Father and the Son, and is also signified as almighty. At the same point, on the … Chapter [10]. That the Holy Spirit is attested to be God and Lord and glorified. And a refutation of the Macedonian teaching. … sits on the … throne, and sends forth power. And that Paul knows him to be the Lord Sabaoth seen by Isaiah. And against the Macedonian opinion. And that he dwells in us. And that the heretics tamper with the divine Scriptures. … us in baptism; and as Master sets free; and makes us sharers of divine glory, and sons and heirs of the Father, co-heirs and brothers of the Son, glorified together with him. And that baptism is of no benefit to those who do not believe that the Holy Spirit is God. At the same point, that there is one glory of the sun, and another of the moon and the stars. … who bring forward the words “Unless someone is born of water and Spirit.” … that the waters were sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and the salvation that comes from baptism was prepared for us in advance. And that the Israelites obtained salvation from what was once an image of baptism, and much more those who are now baptized and blessed. … especially at baptism to make mention of the Holy Spirit alone, and of his seal, which we have. … the Israelites: in honor and glory of the holy Pascha of Christ, the day of Unleavened Bread; and in honor and glory of the august coming of the Holy Spirit, their day of Pentecost; and that the assemblies of the churches and … and of the martyrs’ shrines were foretold by the feast of Tabernacles. … and that he always works together with God the Father and strengthens us. And that his appearing and his teaching are equal in honor with the Son’s and in harmony with it; and that David, who bore the Spirit, prays to be established by him. … [the apostles], armed with the power of the Spirit, alone withstood the world and the devil, speaking and understanding every tongue. And on the eunuch who said: “Look, water; what prevents me from being baptized?” … is plainly called God, and not the Holy Spirit too? And that “God” and “Lord” is a name common to the holy Trinity, as the Godhead and the lordship are one. Chapter 20. That the earthly man does not have the Holy Spirit, but the believer who has been counted worthy of baptism has him; and that he can, to the measure of our nature, behold with the eye of the soul the glory of the Holy Spirit too. … God is glorified in the Spirit, but not the Holy Spirit. And on the words “No one can say ‘Lord Jesus’ except in the Holy Spirit.” And that to regenerate by baptism … than to be glorified or worshiped, greater and … the Holy Spirit and the Son by faith, that the church is greater than the synagogue. … of the heretics who interpret the Scriptures. At the same point, on not disregarding the Fathers. … threat against those who reject his Son and the Holy Spirit. … wrote of the Holy Spirit’s consubstantiality with God, and of his proceeding from him.

[Chapter 1.] That the holy Trinity is incomprehensible.

Those who are eager to be a temple, worthy in some measure at least, of the Holy Spirit who dwells in the faithful, having once for all the unapproachable light shining within them, glorify, as the Master taught in the mystery of bap[tism] … God and Father, and the beloved and only-begotten Son, the Word, who coexists with him and is from him, and the Holy Spirit named with them, who alone proceeded from his hypostasis without beginning and without interval. They do not disbelieve the consubstantiality of the Trinity, yet they do not inquire into the manner of begetting and of procession and the difference between them; for to the heavenly ministering powers too this has remained unknown, unspeakable, and fearful even to consider, as has the question how the holy Trinity coexists with itself without beginning, always the same and in the same way; and how, seated on the eternal throne, it can look upon the abysses, and be heard while silent, and hear those who are silent; and know what is to come before it is done; and bring all things into being by a word, and faster than a word, and by willing alone; and, before a person has thought the matter through in his heart, provided only that he asks faithfully and justly, give its verdict on the request at once, and fit the right time for kindness to everyone; and be slow to anger but ready to do good; and be provoked by our faults but forgive out of its own love for humankind … [incomprehensi]ble to it is also how it has one will, and speaks, and bestows what is common to itself; and how it looks after not so much the good health of bodies as the broken heart itself. And this too: how it is invisible, and cannot be grasped by the eyes of the seraphim, cannot be contained by reason or place, is indivisible in power, intangible, overseeing all things, hearing all things, and the hope of all; far brighter than the light of heaven, higher than every height by more than can be said, and more intelligent than every mind by an infinite measure. For how could the things of the Trinity fail to be incomprehensible to all, when it is itself the maker of all things, and highest above all intellectual, and indeed intelligible, creation, beyond which there is nothing at all, while all things are rather under it, and through it, and under its feet, as its works? For the Father, being well pleased, began; the Only-begotten created; and the Spirit of God sanctified, being whole in all and in each by his sanctification, and wholly shared and received by all, out of goodness; not divided, not moving from place to place, not changing, but always breathing upon all alike and not in part, and keeping his own purity undefiled by bodies; and all things in a divine way … of heaven he beheld, and the angels of God ascending and descending. But now, having become man for the sake of man, the Lover of humankind, having kicked away the inhuman one with the foot of his Godhead, and having lifted up man with the hand of his kindness, [trod] the untrodden ether with human feet … love, peace, wisdom, joy, security, and every good, as having shone forth hypostatically from the Father’s fountain. Through him and because of him God the Father draws near to us; with him the Father is in heaven and also remains with us. Each divine hypostasis is able to do all things perfectly without need of another; but in order to show that their substance is one in working and without difference, and so too the worship, glory, and thanksgiving that we owe them, creation was therefore brought to completion by the holy Trinity in common. So, to show that creation was ordered by the Trinity, he sings: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their powers.” … the only-begotten Son, through whom and by whom they were created; and by “Spirit” the Holy Spirit of God, existing as a hypostasis, by whom they were sanctified and strengthened. For he is the divine name, the almighty and surpassing dignity, named and glorified together with Father and Son; the one who sanctifies, gives life, and imparts heavenly light; the one who preserves each thing in its abiding identity; the one who sounded in the prophets and apostles, and strengthened the martyrs to withstand the cruelty of tyrants; the one who renews and sets free as Lord, and makes us sons of God as the Spirit of adoption; the one who by his illumination drives off the swarms of demons and the … and makes us sharers in the life and the hymn-singing of the angels; the one who becomes for us a path leading up to the heavenly God and Father himself; the free, surpassing, and most serene manifestation; the fruitful, boundless, and saving power; the immeasurable, incomparable, and august hypostasis; the undefiled, choice, and all-pure glory; the divine grace that fills up what is lacking and heals what is weak; the ineffable and everlasting goodness; the fountain of unfailing gifts and the source from which every good thought proceeds; the true revelation of things to come and unknown; the saving seal and the divine anointing; the pledge of the … through whom we have divine rebirth, forgiveness of lawless deeds, the covering of sins, and close kinship with God; a crown for the righteous and the receiving of good things; a heavenly dwelling, endless life, and the eternal inheritance of the kingdom of God. Whoever shares in his fellowship through rebirth obtains the good things just named and, as the Catholic Epistles say, is a sharer in the divine nature. For one who has received the incorruptible and everlasting illumination remains ageless in the intelligible sense, in youth and gentleness, and is made like him who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light. For the sacred seers of the Old and New Testament know that the Holy Spirit belongs to the one supreme divine nature. At once, then, they testify:

That the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. On a heretical objection.

First, that he is the Spirit of God, and from God, though not after him; that he alone knows the things of God; and that he comes upon all. They say as follows. Moses in Genesis, speaking in the person of God: “… [shall not remain in] these men forever, because they are flesh.” Haggai likewise, from the divine voice: “I am with you, and my Spirit stands in your midst.” Zechariah likewise: “But hear my words and receive my ordinances, which I command by my Spirit to my servants the prophets.” Isaiah, from the Father to the Son: “My Spirit, which is upon you, and the words which I have put in your mouth, shall not fail from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed”; by “his seed” he means those who are from the Son. [And the Son says:] “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” That these things were fulfilled in the dispensation Matthew stated thus: “So that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, saying: Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased; I will put my Spirit upon him.” And again, from the Father: “For a Spirit shall go forth from me.” And in Ezekiel the most high Father calls our spirit our spirit, but names the Holy Spirit as his own, inasmuch as he proceeded from him by nature: “And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit; and I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh; and I will put my Spirit within you.” And in … upon all flesh.” And Paul wrote to Titus that these things have been accomplished: “When the saving grace of our [God] appeared, not by works which we ourselves had done, but according to his great mercy, he gave us new birth through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ.” And when did he pour him out? When Christ breathed on them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The words “poured out” are well chosen, since the Spirit proceeded from him consubstantially like water, and like a divine ointment, as we shall show at the proper time in the fitting places; and so is “upon all flesh.” For these expressions suit the substance of the holy Trinity, which is participated in by all together, but not a created rational nature that cannot be participated in. For it does not say anywhere “… of an angel,” nor so unrestrictedly, but “upon all flesh.” And David too cries out in supplication: “Do not take your Holy Spirit from me”; and again: “Your good Spirit shall lead me in a level land.” And Matthew, from the Son: “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of my Father who speaks in you”; that is, not you who are created, but the uncreated Spirit of God. And Paul too writes, to the Corinthians in the first Epistle: “What eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and has not entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him, God has revealed to us through his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might see the things freely given to us by God.” He said that the Spirit revealed the good things prepared by God, as one who gives them together with him; and he said “his Spirit” in contrast to our spirit. And again, to make sure that the Spirit would not be thought of as an angel or some other created spirit, he added: “We have received not the spirit of the world” (that is, one that has come into being), “but the Spirit who is from God”; that is, by elimination, the one who proceeded from the hypostasis of God; and that he alone knows the things of God, as Lord, and as having the same nature as the Father. For “the servant,” as he says in the Gospel, “does not know what his master is doing.” But he no longer said, as in the case of man, “who dwells in God,” so that the uncompounded God might not be thought compounded. And to the Ephesians: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption”; and to the Romans: “You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you; and if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his”; and to the Galatians: “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father”; and to the Philippians: “For I know that this will turn out for my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” Observe, then, how merely calling him “Spirit of God,” and the addition of the article “my” and “your,” also showed with perfect clarity that he is unc[reated] … but from his being by nature that which he is also called. And his being written “Spirit of the Son” likewise showed his fellowship of nature with the Son, so that he should not be thought the Son’s creature. For how could the Son have created for his own Father, as though the Father had not had him from himself before this, that which both is and is written to be the Spirit of God? That is not only blasphemous but also foolish. “Spirit of Christ” could be understood as “power of Christ,” in the way that Christ is called the power of God and the wisdom of God. For since these blessed hypostases came forth from the one Father by nature and not by a creative operation, they are referred back to that same One. So that no one might suspect that the Spirit has a beginning or an end, the Lord says in the Gospel according to John: “The Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father.” He did not say, “is created.” Every begetting and procession is accomplished by means of things equal and alike; but above all and in a distinctive way, the begetting and the procession from the one Father are in accordance with the unity of his Godhead. Yet among creatures the original precedes in time, but with God it is not so: they subsist together with him and have come forth together with him. In harmony with the Lord, John too proclaimed that the Holy Spirit is equal to the Father and without difference from him, comprehending, so to speak, the whole of the uncircumscribed God the Father; and he shows that he is found among the faithful, saying: “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, by his Spirit, whom he has given us”; just as the Son said: “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” and, “I came forth from the Father.” For nothing at all that is inferior in substance, or in time, or in glory can show forth the whole truth, or be of the same kind, or have equal knowledge; nor could anyone obtain a share in true Godhead through a creature. But the Holy Spirit is given, not by being cut into parts, but by way of participation, and so that he might not be thought to dwell in us as of a different nature or a different mind from the Father. At the same time the son of thunder showed that where the Holy Spirit is, God the Father, whose Spirit he is, is present; which God himself also proclaimed beforehand, saying: “I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” And again its opposite makes plain that if anyone does not have the Spirit of God as true God, he does not have the Father either; and among those with whom he is not, there is nothing true, nothing safe, nothing firm. Conversely: anyone at all who speaks of him, even if he happens to be a heretic, if asked what spirit he is talking about, says, “the Holy one”; and if the question is put to him again, “which Holy one?”, he must say, to make it perfectly plain, “the Spirit of God,” since the others are not his by substance.

But the heretics, making trouble for themselves and their hearers, with violent arguments slander those who are better than both us and them and far superior, the saints who spoke oracles about the Holy Spirit, against whom no law contrary to them may be laid down. For they say, word for word, as follows: “When God says, then, ‘My servant Isaiah,’ and, ‘Israel, my firstborn son,’ does the syllable ‘my’ show that human nature has something in common with the nature of God? So, just as he said this,” he says, “as the cause of their existence, so too he called their animating principle ‘my spirit.’” If they had any regard for truth and precision, they would not stumble so badly. For first, by the very words “Isaiah” and “Israel” he indicated men; and he added “my” to them in a special sense, as belonging to him by their deeds. He called Isaiah his servant, that is, his household slave; and Israel his firstborn, as the first to begin to worship him, and as standing in the rank of a son by his disposition toward God and by God’s care. So the word “my,” when spoken by God of the true Son and the true Spirit, shows kinship of nature; but in the case of all others, that they belong to him by lordship or by faith. So we too are accustomed to say, of those who are of the same substance as we are, “my son,” “my spirit”; but of other things, “my field,” “my horse,” and indeed also, “my God.” For just as it is not the bare and unqualified use of the words “Word” and “Christ” that shows the hypostatic Word of the divine nature to have been begotten from the hypostasis of God, but their having the syllable “my” and “your” joined to them (as when God says, “This is my beloved Son,” and again, “My good word,” and, “I have prepared a lamp for my Christ,” while we praise him with “Your Son,” “Your Only-begotten,” “Your Christ”); and just as the fact that it is written of us, homonymously or synonymously, “Sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart?” does not by the sameness of name drag the Son of God away from his Godhead: so with the Holy Spirit, it is not his being called simply “Spirit,” but the attaching to the name of “my,” as from God, or “your,” as from creation, or of the word “holy,” or “incorruptible,” or “eternal,” that shows that he has proceeded from the Father’s hypostasis. Nor does the fact that the ministering spirits and our own spirits are called by the same name, whether holy or eternal, drag him away from being by nature the true Spirit of God. For even in the riddling expressions about him one finds, without fail, some indication of his divine nature and power. Creatures received holiness and eternity in addition to their own nature, and do not have these at all by nature from themselves. Otherwise these very heretics would be found accusing themselves, since they accept “my” of the Son of God, and “holy” and “eternal,” simply as announcing identity of the divine nature. Then, besides this, in the proofs set out above it was not our animating principle that he called spirit, but his own Holy Spirit. For when we already had our own spirit, the Spirit of God too was given to us. For the Father said: “My Spirit shall not remain in these men”; and the Son: “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Plainly, then, it was to those who already had our own spirit that these words about the divine Spirit were spoken. Therefore, as the Son, the Word of God, is begotten in the manner of a son, so the Holy Spirit proceeds in the manner of a spirit, and not by way of creation. And as there is no difference whatever of substance, power, and glory between the only-begotten Son and God the Father, but every difference, if it is right to say so, between him and creation, so too with the one divine Spirit. Therefore not even to listen to the doctrines of the heretics …