But the order of things which is above us, alike in the region of intelligence and in that of sense (if by what we know we may form conjectures about those things also which are above us), is itself established within the operation and power of the Holy Spirit, every man receiving the benefit according to his own desert and need. For although the arrangement and ordering of things above our nature is obscure to our sense, yet one may more reasonably infer, by the things which we know, that in them too the power of the Spirit works, than that it is banished from the order existing in the things above us. For he who asserts the latter view advances his blasphemy in a naked and unseemly shape, without being able to support his absurd opinion by any argument. But he who agrees that those things which are above us are also ordered by the power of the Spirit with the Father and the Son, makes his assertion on this point with the support of clear evidence from his own life. For14    This sentence and the passage following, down to the words “is wrought by the Father and the Son,” are omitted in the editions of S. Basil. as the nature of man is compounded of body and soul, and the angelic nature has for its portion life without a body, if the Holy Spirit worked only in the case of bodies, and the soul were not capable of receiving the grace that comes from Him, one might perhaps infer from this, if the intellectual and incorporeal nature which is in us were above the power of the Spirit, that the angelic life too was in no need of His grace. But if the gift of the Holy Spirit is principally a grace of the soul, and the constitution of the soul is linked by its intellectuality and invisibility to the angelic life, what person who knows how to see a consequence would not agree, that every intellectual nature is governed by the ordering of the Holy Spirit? For since it is said “the angels do alway behold the Face of My Father which is in heaven15    S. Matt. xviii. 10.,” and it is not possible to behold the person of the Father otherwise than by fixing the sight upon it through His image; and the image of the person of the Father is the Only-begotten, and to Him again no man can draw near whose mind has not been illumined by the Holy Spirit, what else is shown from this but that the Holy Spirit is not separated from any operation which is wrought by the Father and the Son? Thus the identity of operation in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit shows plainly the undistinguishable character of their substance. So that even if the name of Godhead does indicate nature, the community of substance shows that this appellation is properly applied also to the Holy Spirit.

ἡ δὲ ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς οἰκονομία ἔν τε τῇ νοητῇ κτίσει καὶ ἐν τῇ αἰσθητῇ, εἴ τι χρὴ διὰ τῶν γινωσκομένων ἡμῖν καὶ περὶ τῶν ὑπερκειμένων στοχάζεσθαι, οὐδὲ αὐτὴ τῆς τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ἐνεργείας καὶ δυνάμεως ἔξω καθέστηκεν, ἑκάστου κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν ἀξίαν τε καὶ χρείαν τῆς ὠφελείας μεταλαμβάνοντος. εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἄδηλος τῇ αἰσθήσει τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ ἡ περὶ τῶν ἄνω τῆς ἡμετέρας φύσεως διάταξίς τε καὶ διοίκησις, ὅμως ἐκ τῆς ἀκολουθίας εὐλογώτερον ἄν τις σύνθοιτο διὰ τῶν ἡμῖν γνωρίμων ἐνεργὸν εἶναι καὶ ἐπ' ἐκείνων τὴν τοῦ πνεύματος δύναμιν ἢ ἀπεξενῶσθαι τῆς ἐν τοῖς ὑπερκειμένοις οἰκονομίας. ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἐκεῖνο λέγων ψιλὴν καὶ ἀκατάσκευον τὴν βλασφημίαν προβάλλεται, οὐδενὶ λογισμῷ κατασκευάζων τὴν ἀτοπίαν: ὁ δὲ συντιθέμενος καὶ τὰ ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς μετὰ πατρὸς καὶ υἱοῦ τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ πνεύματος οἰκονομεῖσθαι, ἐναργεῖ τεκμηρίῳ τῷ κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν ζωὴν ἐπερειδόμενος περὶ τούτων διισχυρίζεται. τῆς γὰρ ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως ἐκ ψυχῆς τε καὶ σώματος συγκεκραμένης, τῆς δὲ ἀγγελικῆς ἀσώματον τὴν ζωὴν κεκληρωμένης, εἰ μὲν ἐπὶ μόνων τῶν σωμάτων ἐνεργὸν ἦν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, ἡ δὲ ψυχὴ τῆς παρ' αὐτοῦ χάριτος ἀνεπίδεκτος ἦν, ἴσως ἄν τις ἐκ τούτου συνελογίσατο_τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν νοερᾶς τε καὶ ἀσωμάτου φύσεως ὑπὲρ τὴν τοῦ πνεύματος δύναμιν οὔσης_μηδὲ τὴν ἀγγελικὴν ζωὴν ἐπιδεᾶ τῆς ἐκείνου χάριτος εἶναι. εἰ δὲ κατὰ τὸ προηγούμενον ἡ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος δωρεὰ τῆς ψυχῆς χάρις ἐστί, τῷ δὲ νοερῷ τε καὶ ἀειδεῖ συνῆπταί πως πρὸς τὴν ἀγγελικήν τε καὶ ἀσώματον ζωὴν ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς ἡμῶν κατασκευή, τίς οὐκ ἂν σύνθοιτο τῶν τὸ ἀκόλουθον βλέπειν ἐπισταμένων, ὅτι πᾶσα νοερὰ φύσις τῇ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος οἰκονομεῖται διαταγῇ; ἐπειδὴ γὰρ εἴρηται Ὅτι διὰ παντὸς βλέπουσι τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ πατρός μου τοῦ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς οἱ ἄγγελοι, οὐκ ἔστι δὲ ἄλλως ἰδεῖν τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς ὑπόστασιν μὴ διὰ τοῦ χαρακτῆρος εἰς αὐτὴν ἀτενίσαντα, ὁ δὲ χαρακτὴρ τῆς τοῦ πατρὸς ὑποστάσεως ὁ μονογενής ἐστι, τούτῳ δὲ πάλιν οὐκ ἄν τις προσεγγίσειε μὴ τῷ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι καταυγασθεὶς τὴν διάνοιαν, τί ἐκ τούτων ἀποδείκνυται; ὅτι οὐδὲ μιᾶς ἐνεργείας τῆς παρὰ πατρὸς ἐνεργουμένης τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα διακεχώρισται. οὐκοῦν ἡ τῆς ἐνεργείας ταυτότης ἐπὶ πατρός τε καὶ υἱοῦ καὶ ἁγίου πνεύματος δείκνυσι σαφῶς τὸ τῆς φύσεως ἀπαράλλακτον: ὥστε, κἂν φύσιν σημαίνῃ τὸ τῆς θεότητος ὄνομα, κυρίως καὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι τὴν προσηγορίαν ἐφαρμόζεσθαι ταύτην ἡ τῆς οὐσίας. κοινότης συνθήσεται.