26. That the Spirit is above the creation, distinct in nature from things originated, and proper to the Godhead, can be seen from the following consideration also. The Holy Spirit is incapable of change and alteration. For it says, ‘The Holy Spirit of discipline will flee deceit and will start away from thoughts that are without understanding.’ And Peter says: ‘In the incorruptibility of the meek and quiet Spirit.’ Again, in Wisdom: ‘Thine incorruptible Spirit is in all things.’ And if ‘none knoweth the things of God save the Spirit of God which is in him’, and, as James said, in God ‘there is no variation nor shadow that is cast by turning’— the Holy Spirit, being in God, must be incapable of change, variation, and corruption. But the nature of things originated and of things created is capable of change, inasmuch as it is outside the essence of God, and came into existence from that which is not. For it says: ‘Every man is a liar,’ and, ‘All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’ ‘And angels which kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgement of the great day.’ In Job: ‘If he putteth no trust in his holy angels ... and against his angels he imputeth evil . . . and the stars are not pure in his sight.’ Paul writes: ‘Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life?’ We have heard too that the devil, who was ‘between the cherubim’, and was ‘the seal of the likeness’, fell ‘as lightning from heaven’. But if, while creatures are by nature capable of change, and such things are written about angels, the Spirit is the same and unalterable; if he shares the immutability of the Son, with him abiding ever unchangeable—what likeness can there be between the unchangeable and the things that change? It will be clear that he is not a creature, nor does he belong in essence to the angels, for they are changeable, but he is the image of the Word and pertains to the Father.

Again, the Spirit of the Lord fills the universe. Thus David sings: ‘Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?’ Again, in Wisdom it is written: ‘Thine incorruptible Spirit is in all things.’ But things originated are all in places apportioned to them: sun, moon, and stars in the firmament, clouds in the air. For men he has ‘set the bounds of the peoples’. The angels are ‘sent forth’ for ministries. ‘And the angels came to stand before the face of the Lord,’ as it is written in Job. And Jacob the patriarch dreamed: ‘And behold! a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and the angels of God ascended and descended upon it.’ But if the Spirit fills all things, and in the Word is present in the midst of all things; and if the angels, being his inferiors, are circumscribed, and where they are sent forth, there are they present: it is not to be doubted that the Spirit does not belong to things originated, nor is he an angel at all, as you say, but by nature is above the angels.

Ὅτι δὲ ἄνω τῆς κτίσεώς ἐστι τὸ Πνεῦμα, καὶ ἄλλο μὲν παρὰ τὴν τῶν γενητῶν φύσιν, ἴδιον δὲ τῆς θεότητος, ἔξεστι καὶ ἐκ τούτου πάλιν συνιδεῖν. Ἄτρεπτον καὶ ἀναλλοίωτόν ἐστι τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον· «Ἅγιον, γάρ φησι, Πνεῦμα παιδείας φεύξεται δόλον, καὶ ἀπαναστήσεται ἀπὸ λογισμῶν ἀσυνέτων.» Καὶ ὁ μὲν Πέτρος φησίν· «Ἐν τῷ ἀφθάρτῳ τοῦ πραέος καὶ ἡσυχίου Πνεύματος·» καὶ πάλιν ἐν τῇ Σοφίᾳ· «Τὸ γὰρ ἄφθαρτόν σου Πνεῦμά ἐστιν ἐν πᾶσι·» καὶ εἰ «οὐδεὶς οἶδε τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, εἰ μὴ τὸ Πνεῦμα τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸ ἐν αὐτῷ·» οὐκ ἔστι δὲ παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ, ὡς εἶπεν ὁ Ἰάκωβος, «παραλλαγὴ ἢ τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα·» ἐν τῷ Θεῷ ὂν τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, εἰκότως ἂν εἴη ἄτρεπτον καὶ ἀπαράλλακτον καὶ ἄφθαρτον. Ἡ δὲ τῶν γενητῶν καὶ τῶν κτιστῶν φύσις ἐστὶ τρεπτὴ, ἅτε δὴ ἔξωθεν οὖσα τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ οὐσίας, καὶ ἐξ οὐκ ὄν των ὑποστᾶσα· «πᾶς» μὲν γὰρ «ἄνθρωπος,» φησὶ, «ψεύστης.» Καὶ, «πάντες ἥμαρτον, καὶ ὑστεροῦν ται τῆς δόξης τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ἀγγέλους δὲ τοὺς μὴ τηρήσαντας τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἀρχὴν, ἀλλ' ἀπολιπόντας τὸ ἴδιον οἰκητήριον, εἰς κρίσιν μεγάλης ἡμέρας δεσμοῖς ἀϊδίοις ὑπὸ ζόφον τετήρηκεν.» Ἐν δὲ τῷ Ἰώβ· «Εἰ κατὰ ἁγίων ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ οὐ πιστεύει, κατὰ δὲ ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ σκολιόν τι ἐπενόησεν· ἄστρα δὲ οὐ καθαρὰ ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ·» ὁ δὲ Παῦλος γράφει· «Οὐκ οἴδατε, ὅτι ἀγγέλους κρινοῦμεν, μήτιγε βιωτικά;» Ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ ἠκούσαμεν, ὅτι ὁ διάβολος, ἐν μέ σῳ τῶν χερουβὶμ ὢν, καὶ ἀποσφράγισμα ὁμοιώσεως γενόμενος, ἐξέπεσεν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ὡς ἀστραπή. Εἰ δὲ τὰ μὲν κτίσματα τοιαύτην ἔχει φύσιν, καὶ γέγραπται περὶ ἀγγέλων τοιαῦτα· τὸ δὲ Πνεῦμα τὸ αὐτό ἐστι καὶ ἀναλλοίωτον, καὶ τῆς τοῦ Υἱοῦ ἀτρεψίας, ἐστὶ, μένον ἀεὶ σὺν αὐτῷ ἄτρεπτον· ποία ὁμοιότης τῷ ἀτρέπτῳ πρὸς τὰ τρεπόμενα; ∆ῆλον γὰρ ἂν εἴη, ὡς οὔτε κτίσμα ἐστὶν, οὔτε ὅλως τῆς τῶν ἀγγέλων οὐσίας ἐστὶ, διὰ τὸ ἐκείνους εἶναι τρεπτούς· ἀλλ' εἰκὼν τοῦ Λόγου, καὶ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἴδιόν ἐστι. Πάλιν τε τὸ μὲν Πνεῦμα Κυρίου πεπλήρωκε τὴν οἰκουμένην. Οὕτω γὰρ καὶ ὁ ∆αβὶδ ψάλλει· «Ποῦ πορευθῶ ἀπὸ τοῦ Πνεύματός σου;» Καὶ πάλιν ἐν τῇ Σοφίᾳ γέγραπται· «Τὸ γὰρ ἄφθαρτόν σου Πνεῦμά ἐστιν ἐν πᾶσι.» Τὰ δὲ γενητὰ πάντα ἐν μεμερισμέ νοις τόποις εἰσὶν, ἥλιος μὲν, καὶ σελήνη, καὶ ἀστέ ρες ἐν τῷ στερεώματι, νεφέλαι δὲ ἐν τῷ ἀέρι· καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἔστησεν ὅρια ἐθνῶν· οἵ τε ἄγγελοι ἀποστέλλονται εἰς διακονίας· «Καὶ ἦλθον οἱ ἄγγελοι παραστῆναι ἐνώπιον τοῦ Κυρίου,» ὡς ἐν τῷ Ἰὼβ γέ γραπται· καὶ, «ἐνυπνιάσθη δὲ Ἰακὼβ ὁ πατριάρχης· καὶ, ἰδοὺ κλίμαξ ἐστηριγμένη ἐν τῇ γῇ, ἧς ἡ κεφαλὴ ἀφικνεῖτο εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν, καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀνέβαινον καὶ κατέβαινον ἐπ' αὐτῆς.» Εἰ δὲ τὸ μὲν Πνεῦμα πάντα πληροῖ, καὶ ἐν τῷ Λόγῳ πάρεστιν ἐν μέσῳ πάντων, οἱ δὲ ἄγγελοι ἐλαττοῦνται τούτῳ, καὶ ἔνθα ἀποστέλλονται, ἐκεῖ πάρεισιν· οὐκ ἀμφίβολον οὖν, ὅτι οὔτε τῶν γενητῶν, οὔτε ὅλως ἄγγελός ἐστιν, ὡς ὑμεῖς λέγετε, τὸ Πνεῦμα, ἀλλ' ἄνω τῆς τῶν ἀγγέλων φύσεώς ἐστιν.