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for it too is mentioned as cooperating, and not being lowered from the ineffable nature. Thus indeed are these things, and not otherwise, and I will yet omit saying more. But also through the Spirit God distributes, as through His Word He creates. This does not cast it out from the Godhead, just as it does not the Son; indeed, through these things it even reveals it as God. Since to those created through the Son, through the Holy Spirit are provided the good things spoken of everywhere for salvation. For the one is dependent on the other, and for the one created, to be an object of providence is more advantageous than to have been created, and to be deemed worthy of the flowing multitude of divine gifts from heaven; and everywhere not to have been born is preferred to being born and having no share in the inexhaustible good things from above; which even when given are not seen, just as the giver both provides through the ages, and is somehow unknown. For eye has not seen them, nor ear heard, nor have they ever entered into thought; and every height lies beyond our knowledge as we reason about them, and every beauty as we gather them, so that faith may somehow approach what is fitting; for where the truth itself, or the exactness, is for now not attainable, one must look to what is possible. An unerring voice therefore said concerning him who had no share in these things: "It were good for that man if he had not been born." You yourself, therefore, have now brought yourself under accusation, and have turned back on yourself the charge which you leveled against us; and you seemed simply no different from those who beat the air, being led to stitch together, as the saying goes, certain difficulties, and to bring unwisely into the midst, between divine matters and narratives, when necessity did not require it, certain other material things, and indeed the adversary, and the outcast, and the one suggesting such things as you said. And you are far from those who have done something fitting and good, and no Christian who has studied the Scriptures rightly and dispassionately, and to whom it was given at once to excel in the grace given by the divine Spirit, would accept you for the things you have laboriously produced to the harm of souls. For according to your attempt, perhaps every Scripture that contains an indication of theology will be cast out. And come, if these things are not true, 39.617 let us consider them thus gently and moderately. For I shall appear precisely, and not simply from ambiguous proofs, but from acknowledged ones, and I shall teach easily, and you will learn Paul, who had, as they say, a blessed zeal hotter than fire for our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, writes that Christ became a minister. And this benefactor himself clearly said concerning himself: "I have received a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak;" and, "I do nothing of myself." And elsewhere it is said: "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." And yet we understand that these things have been so written faithfully and in a manner worthy of God, because of the one will of the Holy Trinity, and because all things are referred to the Father. As, therefore, no variation of Godhead is conceived in the Son—for he neither serves, as one different in nature to another different; nor by a lessening of power, but as Son and Word to a genuine Father; nor does he receive a commandment, as being ignorant of what is fitting and the Father's will—but as has been said before, so also is the divine Spirit. And in the way that the things of the Word of God are referred to God the Father, in this way, and no other, are the things of the Holy Spirit. So that by whatever things heretics have exalted their own opinion, by these they have moved the charge of arrogance and evil opinion against themselves. The matters of their impious and unfitting slander did not stop there for them. For while trying to muddy the undefiled glory concerning the Godhead of the Holy Spirit, as if no good existed for them from it, and at the same time to bring an accusation against us, these very men, who have used certain men as teachers, do not hesitate to innovate and say this verbatim, that we, by taking the Scripture that declares, "The Spirit blows where it wishes," as referring to divine dignity, reduce it to human nature; since after other things it has: "So is everyone who is born of the

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γὰρ, καὶ συμπρᾶττον, καὶ τῆς ἀῤῥήτου φύσεως οὐχ ὑποβιβαζόμενον μνημονεύεται καὶ αὐτό. Οὕτως μὲν οὖν ταῦτα, καὶ οὐκ ἄλλως, καὶ πλείω παρήσω λέγειν ὅμως. Ἀλλὰ καὶ διὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος διανέμει ὁ Θεὸς, ὡς διὰ τοῦ Λόγου αὐτοῦ κτίζει. Τοῦτο οὐκ ἐκβάλλει αὐτὸ τῆς θεότητος, ὡς οὐδὲ τὸν Υἱόν· μενοῦν γε καὶ ἀποφαίνει καὶ διὰ τούτων αὐτὸ Θεόν. Ἐπειδὴ τοῖς διὰ τοῦ Υἱοῦ κτισθεῖσι, διὰ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος τὰ πρὸς σωτηρίαν καὶ πανταχοῦ λαλούμενα παρέχεται ἀγαθά. Θάτερον γὰρ θατέρου ἤρτηται, καὶ τῷ δημιουργηθέντι συμφορώτερον τοῦ δημιουργηθῆναι τὸ προνοεῖσθαι, καὶ τοῦ ῥέοντος πλήθους τῶν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ θείων καταξιοῦσθαι δώρων· καὶ προτετίμηται πανταχοῦ τὸ μὴ γενέσθαι, τοῦ γενόμενον ἀτευξίαν ἔχειν τῶν ἄνωθεν ἀδαπανήτων ἀγαθῶν· ἃ καὶ διδόμενα οὐχ ὁρᾶται, ὡς καὶ ὁ διδοὺς καὶ δι' αἰώνων ἐπαρκεῖ, καὶ ἀγνοεῖταί πως. Οὐ γὰρ ἴδεν αὐτὰ ὄμμα, οὔτε ἤκουσεν οὖς, ἢ εἰς ἐνθύμησιν ἦλθέ πω· καὶ πρόκειται τῇ γνώσει ἡμῶν πᾶν περὶ αὐτῶν ὕψος συλλογιζομένων, πᾶν τε κάλλος συλλεγόντων, ὅπως ποτ' οὖν πελάζῃ τῷ πρέποντι ἡ πίστις· ἔνθα γὰρ αὐτὸ τἀληθὲς, ἢ τἀκριβὲς, τέως οὐχ ἁλώσιμον, ἐς τὸ δυνατὸν δεῖ βλέπειν. Ἀπλανὴς οὖν ἔλεξε φωνὴ περὶ τοῦ γενομένου ἀμετόχου τούτων· "Καλὸν ἦν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ ἐκείνῳ, εἰ οὐκ ἐγεννήθη." Αὐτὸς οὖν σεαυτὸν δι' αἰτίας ἤγαγες ἤδη, καὶ εἰς ἑαυτὸν περιέτρεψας, ἣν εἴλω καθ' ἡμῶν κατηγορίαν· καὶ ἁπλῶς τῶν ἀέρα τυπτόντων οὐδὲν διαφέρειν ἔδοξας, προαχθεὶς εἰς τὸ ἀπορίας τινὰς, τὸ δὴ λεγόμενον, καττύσαι, καὶ μεταξὺ θείων πραγμάτων καὶ διηγημάτων εἰς μέσον ἀσόφως φέρειν, τῆς χρείας οὐκ ἀπαιτούσης, ἄλλα τέ τινα ὑλικὰ, καὶ μέντοι τὸν ἀντικείμενον, καὶ ἀποβεβλημένον, καὶ οἷάπερ ἔλεξας ὑποβάλλοντα. Πολύ τε ἀπέχεις τῶν ἐπιεικές τι καὶ χρηστὸν πεποιηκότων, καὶ οὐδείς σε Χριστιανῶν τῶν τὰς Γραφὰς ὀρθῶς καὶ ἀπροσπαθῶς ἐκμελετησάντων, καὶ οἷς εὐθὺς τὸ διαπρέπειν ἐπὶ τῇ δοθείσῃ παρὰ τοῦ θείου Πνεύματος χάριτι ὑπῆρξεν, ἀποδέξαιτο ἂν εἰς τὰ ψυχοβλαβῶς σοι ἐκπονηθέντα. Κατὰ γὰρ τὴν σὴν ἐγχείρησιν, ἐκβληθήσεται τάχα πᾶσα Γραφὴ, θεολογίας ἔνδειξιν ἔχουσα. Καὶ φέρε, εἰ μὴ ταῦτα ἀληθῆ, 39.617 οὑτωσὶ πράως καὶ μετρίως σκοπήσωμεν. Ἐγώ τε γὰρ ἀναφανῶ ἀκριβῶς, καὶ οὐχ ἁπλῶς ἐξ ἀμφιδόξων ἀποδείξεων, ἀλλ' ὁμολογουμένων, διδάξω τε ῥᾳδίως, καὶ ὑμεῖς μαθήσεσθε Παῦλος, ὁ τὸν δὴ λεγόμενον πυρὸς θερμότερον τὸν περὶ τοῦ μεγάλου Θεοῦ καὶ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ μακάριστον ζῆλον ἔχων, γράφει Χριστὸν διάκονον γεγενῆσθαι. Καὶ αὐτὸς περὶ ἑαυτοῦ ὁ εὐεργέτης οὗτος ἐπιφανῶς ἔφη· "Ἐντολὴν ἔλαβον, τί εἴπω, καὶ τί λαλήσω·" καὶ, "Οὐδὲν ἀπ' ἐμαυτοῦ ποιῶ." Καὶ ἑτέρωθι εἴρηται· "Ὁ νόμος διὰ Μωϋσέως ἐδόθη· ἡ χάρις καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐγένετο." Καὶ ὅμως πιστῶς καὶ θεοπρεπῶς ταῦθ' οὕτως γεγράφθαι, διὰ τὸ ἓν θέλημα τῆς ἁγίας Τριάδος, καὶ διὰ τὸ εἰς τὸν Πατέρα πάντα ἀνάγεσθαι, νοοῦμεν. Ὡς τοίνυν οὐδεμία ἐπινοεῖται παραλλαγὴ θεότητος ἐπὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ οὔτε γὰρ διακονεῖ, ὡς ἀλλοῖος τῇ φύσει ἀλλοίῳ· οὔθ' ὑφέσει δυνάμεως, ἀλλ' ὡς Υἱὸς Λόγος γνησίῳ Πατρί· οὔτ' ἐντολὴν λαμβάνει, ὡς ἀγνοῶν τὸ δέον καὶ τὸ πατρικὸν βούλημα, ἀλλ' ὡς προείρηται, οὕτω καὶ τὸ θεϊκὸν Πνεῦμα. Καὶ ᾧ τρόπῳ τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου ἀναφέρεται εἰς τὸν Θεὸν Πατέρα, τούτῳ, καὶ οὐκ ἄλλῳ, τὰ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος. Ὥστε οἷς ἂν ἐπῆραν τὸ φρόνημα αὐτῶν αἱρετικοὶ, τούτοις ἂν καθ' ἑαυτῶν τὴν ἐπ' ἀλαζονείᾳ καὶ κακοδοξίᾳ διαβολὴν ἐκίνησαν. Οὐκ ἔστη αὐτοῖς ἄχρι τούτων τὰ τῆς ἀσεβοῦς καὶ ἀπροσήκου διαβολῆς. Θολοῦν γὰρ πειρώμενοι τὴν περὶ τῆς θεότητος τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος ἄχραντον δόξαν, ὡς οὐδενὸς αὐτοῖς ἀγαθοῦ ὑπάρχοντος παρ' αὐτοῦ, ἅμα δὲ καὶ ἡμᾶς εἰς ἔγκλημα βαλεῖν, αὐτοὶ οὗτοι οἱ χρησάμενοι διδασκάλοις ἀνθρώπων τισὶν, οὐκ ὀκνοῦσι νεαλογεῖν καὶ τόδε αὐτολεξεὶ, ὅτι λαμβάνοντες ἡμεῖς εἰς θεϊκὴν ἀξίαν τὸ διαγορεῦον γραφίον, "Τὸ Πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ," εἰς ἀνθρωπείαν φύσιν κατάγομεν αὐτό· ἐπειδὴ μεθ' ἕτερα ἔχει· "Οὕτως ἔσται πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ