It may indeed be undignified to give any answer at all to the statements that are foolish we seem to be pointed that way by Solomon’s wise advice, “n

 What then is the charge they bring against us? They accuse us of profanity for entertaining lofty conceptions about the Holy Spirit. All that we, in f

 What then, shall be our way of arguing? We shall answer nothing new, nothing of our own invention, though they challenge us to it we shall fall back

 We can confirm our argument by material instances. Fire naturally imparts the sense of heat to those who touch it, with all its component parts one

 If, then, the Holy Spirit is truly, and not in name only, called Divine both by Scripture and by our Fathers, what ground is left for those who oppose

 For the plea will not avail them in their self-defence, that He is delivered by our Lord to His disciples third in order, and that therefore He is est

 Since, then, it has been affirmed, and truly affirmed, that the Spirit is of the Divine Essence, and since in that one word “Divine” every idea of gre

 But if all must shrink from that, as going even beyond the most revolting blasphemy, then a devout mind must accept the nobler names and conceptions o

 If such is the doctrine concerning Him when followed out , let the same inquiry be made concerning the Son and the Father as well. Do you not confess

 If, then, they agree that the Holy Spirit is perfect absolutely, and it has been admitted in addition that true reverence requires perfection in every

 In what sort of manner, then, can you honour the Deity? How can you heighten the Highest? How can you give glory to that which is above all glory? How

 The heavens proclaim the glory of God , and yet they are counted poor heralds of His worth because His Majesty is exalted, not as far as the heavens,

 What means, then, this lowering and this expanding of their soul, on the part of these men who are enthusiastic for the Father’s honour, and grant to

 “Yes,” replies one of them, “but we have been taught by Scripture that the Father is the Creator, and in the same way that it was ‘through the Son ’ t

 What shall we answer to this? That the thoughts of their hearts are so much idle talk, when they imagine that the Spirit was not always with the Fathe

 The view which is consistent with all reverence is as follows. We are not to think of the Father as ever parted from the Son, nor to look for the Son

 If, on the contrary, this Spirit has the impulse to work, but some overwhelming control hinders His design, they must tell us the wherefore of this hi

 This is the view we take, after the unprofessional way usual with us and we reject all these elaborate sophistries of our adversaries, believing and

 But with regard to service and worship, and the other things which they so nicely calculate about, and bring into prominence, we say this that the Ho

 But if there is any of them who rejects this statement, and this idea involved in the very name of Divinity, and says that which, to the destruction o

 These destroyers of the Spirit’s glory, who relegate Him to a subject world, must tell us of what thing that unction is the symbol. It not a symbol of

 Again, let us look at it in this way. Kingship is most assuredly shown in the rule over subjects. Now what is “subject” to this Kingly Being? The Word

 For notice the amount of absurdity involved in the other alternative all things that we can think of in the actual creation have, by virtue of all ha

 Then let us look to this too. In Holy Baptism, what is it that we secure thereby? Is it not a participation in a life no longer subject to death? I th

 So that if these despisers and impugners of their very own life conceive of the gift as a little one, and decree accordingly to slight the Being who i

 If, then, every height of man’s ability falls below the grandeur of the Spirit (for that is what the Word means in the metaphor of “footstool”), what

 On the contrary the Holy Spirit is, to begin with, because of qualities that are essentially holy, that which the Father, essentially Holy, is and su

 If such, then, is the greatness of the Spirit, and whatever is beautiful, whatever is good, coming from God as it does through the Son, is completed b

 But you will say, “When I think of the Father it is the Son (alone) that I have included as well in that term.” But tell me when you have grasped the

 Do they too, then, mean this by their worship? Well, is it anything but absurdity to think that it is wrong to honour the Holy Spirit with that with w

 [Translation lacking]

Again, let us look at it in this way. Kingship is most assuredly shown in the rule over subjects. Now what is “subject” to this Kingly Being? The Word includes the ages certainly, and all that is in them; “Thy Kingdom,” it says, “is a Kingdom of ages,” and, by ages, it means every substance in them created in infinite space36    ἐκ τοῦ περιέχοντος. This expression of Anaxagoras is repeated more than once in the Treatise “On the Soul.”, whether visible or invisible; for in them all things were created by the Maker of those ages. If, then, the Kingship must always be thought of along with the King, and the world of subjects is acknowledged to be something other than the world of rulers, what absurdity it is for these men to contradict themselves thus, attributing as they do the unction as an expression for the worth of Him Whose very nature it is to be a King, yet degrading that unction Itself to the rank of a subject, as if wanting in such worth! If It is a subject by virtue of its nature, then why is It made the unction of Kingship, and so associated with the Kingly dignity of the Only-begotten? If, on the other hand, the capacity to rule is shown by Its being included in the majesty of Kingship, where is the necessity of having everything dragged down to a plebeian37    ἰδιωτικήν. On 1 Cor. xiv. 16, ῾Ο ἀναπληρῶν τὸν τόπον τοῦ ἰδιώτου, Theodoret says, “ἰδιώτην καλεῖ τὸν ἐν τῷ λαικῷ τάγματι τεταγμένον.” Theophylact also renders the word by the same equivalent. and servile lower condition, and numbered with the subject creation? When we affirm of the Spirit the two conditions, we cannot be in both cases speaking the truth: i.e. that He is ruling, and that He is subject. If He rules, He is not under any lord, but if He is subject, then He cannot be comprehended with the Being who is a King. Men are recognized as amongst men, angels amongst angels, everything amongst its kind; and so the Holy Spirit must needs be believed to belong to one only of two worlds; to the ruling, or to the inferior world; for between these two our reason can recognize nothing; no new invention of any natural attribute on the borderland of the Created and the Uncreated can be thought of, such as would participate in both, yet be neither entirely; we cannot imagine such an amalgamation and welding together of opposites by anything being blended of the Created and the Uncreated, and two opposites thus coalescing into one person, in which case the result of that strange mixture would not only be a composite thing, but composed of elements that were unlike, and disagreeing as to time; for that which receives its personality from a creation is assuredly posterior to that which subsists without a creation. If, then, they declare the Holy Ghost to be blended of both, they must consequently view that blending as of a prior with a posterior thing; and, according to them, He will be prior to Himself; and reversely, posterior to Himself; from the Uncreated He will get the seniority, and from the Created the juniority. But, in the nature of things, this cannot be; and so it must most certainly be true to affirm of the Holy Spirit one only of these alternatives, and that is, the attribute of being Uncreated.

Ἔπειτα καὶ τοῦτο σκοπήσωμεν: ἡ βασιλεία ἐν τῇ τῶν ὑποχειρίων ἀρχῇ πάντως γνωρίζεται. τί οὖν τῆς βασιλευούσης φύσεώς ἐστι τὸ ὑπήκοον; τοὺς αἰῶνας πάντως καὶ τὰ ἐν τούτοις ὁ λόγος καταλαμβάνει: Ἡ γὰρ βασιλεία σου, φησίν, βασιλεία πάντων τῶν αἰώνων. αἰῶνας δὲ λέγων πᾶσαν ἐκ τοῦ περιέχοντος τὴν ἐν αὐτοῖς συστᾶσαν κτίσιν περιλαμβάνει τήν τε ὁρατὴν καὶ ἀόρατον: ἐν αὐτοῖς γὰρ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα διὰ τοῦ ποιητοῦ τῶν αἰώνων. εἰ οὖν ἡ βασιλεία πάντοτε μετὰ τοῦ βασιλέως νοεῖται, ἡ δὲ ὑποχείριος φύσις ἄλλο τι παρὰ τὴν ἄρχουσαν ὁμολογεῖται, τίς ἡ ἀτοπία τῶν ἑαυτοῖς μαχομένων, τῶν προστιθέντων μὲν τὸ χρίσμα τῷ κατὰ φύσιν βασιλεῖ ὡς ἀξίωμα, καταγόντων δὲ αὐτὸ τοῦτο εἰς τὴν ὑποχείριον τάξιν ὡς τῆς ἀξίας καταδεέστερον; εἰ μὲν γὰρ τῶν ὑπηκόων κατὰ τὴν φύσιν ἐστίν, πῶς τῷ τῆς βασιλείας ἀξιώματι τοῦ μονογενοῦς συναρμόζεται χρίσμα βασιλείας γινόμενον; εἰ δὲ τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν αὐτοῦ διὰ τοῦ συμπαραληφθῆναι εἰς τὴν τῆς βασιλείας μεγαλοπρέπειαν δείκνυται, τίς ἡ ἀνάγκη καθαιρεῖσθαι πάντα εἰς ἰδιωτικήν τε καὶ δουλικὴν ταπεινότητα τῇ δουλευούσῃ κτίσει συναριθμούμενον; οὐ γὰρ δὴ τὰ δύο περὶ αὐτοῦ λέγοντα δυνατόν ἐστιν ἐν ἑκατέρῳ τἀληθῆ λέγειν, ὅτι καὶ ἡγεμονικόν ἐστι καὶ ὑποχείριον. εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἡγεῖται, οὐ κυριεύεται: εἰ δὲ δουλεύει, οὐκέτι μετὰ τῆς βασιλευούσης φύσεως καταλαμβάνεται. ὡς γὰρ μετὰ ἀνθρώπων ἄνθρωποι καὶ μετὰ ἀγγέλων ἄγγελοι καὶ πάντα μετὰ τῶν ὁμοφύλων ἐπιγινώσκεται, οὕτω μεθ' ἑνὸς ἑκατέρων ὁμολογεῖσθαι τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστιν ἢ μετὰ τῆς κυριευούσης ἢ μετὰ τῆς ὑποκυπτούσης φύσεως. μέσον γὰρ τούτων ἐπιγινώσκει ὁ λόγος οὐδέν, ὥστε τινὰ φύσεως ἰδιότητα ἐν μεθορίῳ τοῦ τε κτιστοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἀκτίστου καινοτομηθεῖσαν μεταξὺ τούτων εἶναι νομίζεσθαι, ὡς καὶ ἀμφοτέρων μετέχειν καὶ οὐθέτερον τελείως εἶναι. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐνδέχεται μίξιν τινὰ τῶν ἐναντίων καὶ συμπλοκὴν ἐννοῆσαι τοῦ κτιστοῦ πρὸς τὸ ἄκτιστον συνανακιρναμένων καὶ δύο τῶν ἐναντίων εἰς μίαν ὑπόστασιν συμμιγνυμένων: ὡς μὴ μόνον σύνθετον εἶναι τὸ διὰ τῆς ἀλλοκότου ταύτης μίξεως ἀναπλασσόμενον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐξ ἀνομοίων ἔχον τὴν σύνθεσιν καὶ κατὰ τὸν χρόνον οὐ συμφωνούντων: τοῦ γὰρ ἀκτίστως ὑφεστῶτος τὸ διὰ κτίσεως τὴν ὑπόστασιν ἔχον μεταγενέστερον πάντως ἐστίν, εἰ οὖν μεμίχθαι τὴν τοῦ πνεύματος φύσιν πρὸς ἑκάτερα λέγουσιν, ἄρα καὶ τοῦ πρεσβυτέρου πρὸς τὸ νεώτερον μίξιν τινὰ ἐννοήσουσι: καὶ ἔσται κατ' αὐτοὺς ἑαυτοῦ τι πρεσβύτερον καὶ ἑαυτοῦ τι πάλιν μεταγενέστερον, ὡς καὶ τῷ ἀκτίστῳ τὸ ἀρχαιότερον ἔχειν καὶ τῷ κτιστῷ τὸ νεώτερον. ἐπεὶ οὖν τοῦτο φύσιν οὐκ ἔχει, ἀνάγκη πάντως τὸ ἕτερον τούτων ἐπὶ τοῦ πνεύματος ἀληθὲς εἶναι λέγειν, ὅπερ ἐστὶ τὸ ἄκτιστον.