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]

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 imparts the gift, let them be made aware that they cannot limit to one Person only their ingratitude, but must extend its profanity beyond the Holy Spirit to the Holy Trinity Itself. For like as the grace flows down in an unbroken stream from the Father, through the Son and the Spirit, upon the persons worthy of it, so does this profanity return backward, and is transmitted from the Son to the God of all the world, passing from one to the other. If, when a man is slighted, He Who sent him is slighted (yet what a distance there was between the man and the Sender!), what criminality39    κατάκρισιν is thereby implied in those who thus defy the Holy Spirit! Perhaps this is the blasphemy against our Law-giver40    κατὰ τοῦ νομοθέτου is Mai’s reading. But κατὰ τὸν νομοθέτην, i.e. according to S. Mark iii. 29, S. Luke xii. 10, would be preferable. Migne reads παρὰ in this sense. for which the judgment without remission has been decreed; since in Him the41    τὸ has probably dropped out. entire Being, Blessed and Divine, is insulted also. As the devout worshipper of the Spirit sees in Him the glory of the Only-begotten, and in that sight beholds the image of the Infinite God, and by means of that image makes an outline, upon his own cognition42    τῇ γνώσει ἑαυτοῦ., of the Original, so most plainly does this contemner43    Something has dropped out here. (of the Spirit), whenever he advances any of his bold statements against the glory of the Spirit, extend, by virtue of the same reasoning, his profanity to the Son, and beyond Him to the Father. Therefore, those who reflect must have fear lest they perpetrate an audacity the result of which will be the complete blotting out of the perpetrator of it; and while they exalt the Spirit in the naming, they will even before the naming exalt Him in their thought, it being impossible that words can mount along with thought; still when one shall have reached the highest limit of human faculties, the utmost height and magnificence of idea to which the mind can ever attain, even then one must believe it is far below the glory that belongs to44    ἐπιβαλλόυσης. Cf. Ps. xcix. 5; 2 Chron. xxviii. 2. Him, according to the words in the Psalms, that “after exalting the Lord our God, even then ye scarcely worship the footstool beneath His feet”: and the cause of this dignity being so incomprehensible is nothing else than that He is holy.

Ὥστε εἰ μικρὸν ὑπολαμβάνουσι τὸ δῶρον οἱ καὶ τῆς ζωῆς ἑαυτῶν ὑβρισταὶ καὶ πολέμιοι καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τὸ παρεκτικὸν τῆς χάριτος ταύτης ἀτιμάζειν ἐγνώκασι, μὴ λανθανέτωσαν οὐχ ἑνὶ προσώπῳ τὴν ἀχαριστίαν περιορίζοντες, ἀλλὰ διὰ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ἐπὶ τὴν ἁγίαν τριάδα τὴν βλασφημίαν ἐκτείνοντες. ὥσπερ γὰρ ἡ χάρις ἀδιασπάστως ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ πνεύματος ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀξίους ῥέουσα φέρεται, οὕτως καὶ ἡ βλασφημία εἰς τὸ ἔμπαλιν κατὰ διάδοσιν ἀναλύουσα ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν τῶν ὅλων θεὸν διεξέρχεται. εἰ γὰρ δι' ἀνθρώπου ἀθετηθέντος ὁ ἀποστείλας ἠθέτηται, καίτοι πόσον τὸ μέσον, μεταξὺ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου καὶ τοῦ ἀποστείλαντος, τί χρὴ λέγειν, ἡλίκην ὑποσημαίνει κατάκρισιν τοῖς κατατολμῶσι τοῦ πνεύματος; τάχα διὰ τοῦτο ἀσυγχώρητον κρῖμα κατὰ τῆς τοιαύτης βλασφημίας παρὰ τοῦ νομοθέτου κεκύρωται, ἐπειδὴ πᾶσα δι' αὐτοῦ ἡ μακαρία τε καὶ θεία φύσις ἐν τῇ προαιρέσει τοῦ βλασφημοῦντος συγκαθυβρίζεται. ὥσπερ γὰρ ὁ εὐσεβῶς τὸ πνεῦμα δεξάμενος εἶδεν ἐν τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ μονογενοῦς τὴν δόξαν, τὸν δὲ υἱὸν ἰδὼν τὴν εἰκόνα εἶδε τοῦ ἀορίστου καὶ διὰ τῆς εἰκόνος ἐνετυπώσατο τῇ γνώμῃ ἑαυτοῦ τὸ ἀρχέτυπον, οὕτω δηλαδὴ καὶ ὁ κατα † μένος καὶ καταφρονητής, ἐπειδὰν ἀποθρασύνηταί τι κατὰ τῆς δόξης τοῦ πνεύματος, διὰ τῆς αὐτῆς ἀκολουθίας ἐπὶ τὸν πατέρα διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ τὴν βλασφημίαν ἐξέτεινεν. οὐκοῦν φοβητέον τοῖς γε νοῦν ἔχουσι μὴ κατατολμᾶν τῆς τοιαύτης θρασύτητος, ἧς τὸ πέρας παντελής ἐστιν ἀφανισμὸς τοῦ τολμήσαντος: ἀλλ' ὅση δύναμις, ὑψοῦν μὲν τῷ λόγῳ τὸ πνεῦμα, ὑψοῦν δὲ καὶ πρὸ τοῦ λόγου κατὰ διάνοιαν: οὐ γὰρ δυνατόν ἐστι συναναβῆναι τῇ διανοίᾳ τὸν λόγον. καὶ ἐπειδὰν ἐπὶ τὸ ἀκρότατον φθάσῃς τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης δυνάμεως, εἰς ὅσον ὁ ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς ἐξικνεῖται ὕψος καὶ μέγεθος νοημάτων, τότε νόμιζε κάτω εἶναι τῆς ἐπιβαλλούσης ἀξίας κατὰ τὸ εἰρημένον ἐν τῇ ψαλμῳδίᾳ ὅτι Μετὰ τὸ ὑψῶσαι κύριον τὸν θεὸν ἡμῶν, τότε μόγις προσκυνεῖτε τῷ ὑποποδίῳ τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ: τό τε αἴτιον τῆς ἀκαταλήπτου ἀξίας οὐδὲν ἄλλο φησὶν ἢ ὅτι ἅγιός ἐστιν.