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And yet these expressions are very numerous, which for those who are not most discerning take away from the Son His co-eternity and equal honor with the Father, and His very lordly dignity and His unending kingdom; "for the Son also," it says, "shall be subjected," and "He must reign until a certain point," and "the Father is greater," and "Wisdom was created," and "He is ignorant of something of the things created by Him," and "of Himself He can do nothing," and "He came down not to do His own will," and "He was spending the night in prayer to God," and "He learned," and "He advanced," and "He was exalted," and "He was glorified," and "He was perfected," and whatever belongs to the lowliness of our mixture, and whatever belongs to the gratitude, so to speak, of the offspring toward the one who begot Him, and whatever are proofs that He is not opposed to God, and whatever are examples for us through works of virtue.

What then, on account of these things, must the divine, as it were, impassable height, attested elsewhere for the Son, be set aside, because "in the beginning He was," "and was with God, and was God," and "He is begotten before all hills," and "His name endures before the sun," and "this is God and no other shall be accounted of in comparison with Him," for He it is who "after these things associated with men," because both He and the Father are one, and He is in the Father and the Father in Him, and "he who has seen Him has seen the Father," and "with Him is the dominion in the day of His power," "and He will rule after (p. 190) the moon is taken away," and "every knee shall bend to Him of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth," and "His kingdom, an eternal kingdom," and "it will not be left to another king."

These things, therefore, and all others that are similar to these, things so wonderful, so lofty, so insurmountable, shall we drag them down along with the humbling expressions? But shall we not seek and cherish the lofty meaning hidden in what seems lowly, and, having arrived at a pious understanding, resolve the objection? But shall we stumble at the appearance and fall and remain in the letter? By no means; for the letter kills, dragging down from on high those who do not look up to the Spirit.

So then we too, as many as are purely of the Spirit, as many as theologize just as it has revealed itself, as many as think and proclaim nothing unworthy of it, nor depart from what we say; we, therefore, even if something seems not in accord with the theology concerning the holy and adorable Spirit alone, with the Holy Spirit itself granting it, we shall understand it spiritually and clarify it and cast away the stumbling blocks and in every way we shall show that the later Fathers confess the same as the earlier ones, both corporately and individually among themselves, and we ourselves to them, and all of us together to our common Lord by nature and our Father by grace. But since the Latins, through perplexity or malice, twist toward their own false doctrine nearly all that they are ignorant of in the Scriptures, and the things unknown to them are more numerous than those that seem to them irrefutable and through which, as if they were obvious, they deceive the crowd around them, we, having now mentioned these things and, with God's help, refuted these things wrongly interpreted by them, (p. 192) and having, as it were, undermined certain foundations, we will show that the whole edifice of their impiety is unsound.

Come now, let us put forward, first, that which formerly seemed to them altogether unassailable, as being spoken by the Word of truth: "He breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit." Do you see, he says, how clearly the Holy Spirit is also from the Son?

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Καίτοι πλεῖσται εἰσιν αὗται αἱ φωναί, αἵ τοῖς μή διορατικωτάτοις τό πρός τόν Πατέρα συνάναρχόν τε καί ὁμότιμον ἀφαιροῦνται τοῦ Υἱοῦ καί αὐτό δέ τό δεσποτικόν ἀξίωμα καί τήν βασιλείαν τήν ἄληκτον˙ «ὑποταγήσεται γάρ», φησί, «καί ὁ Υἱός», καί «χρή αὐτόν βασιλεύειν ἄχρι τινός», καί «μείζων ὁ Πατήρ», καί «ἡ σοφία ἔκτισται», καί «ἀγνοεῖ τι τῶν ἐκτισμένων ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ», καί «ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ οὐδέν δύναται ποιεῖν», καί «καταβέβηκεν οὐχ ἵνα τό οἰκεῖον θέλημα ποιῇ», καί «ἦν διανυκτερεύων ἐν τῇ προσευχῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ», καί «ἔμαθε», καί «προέκοψε», καί «ὑψώθη», καί «ἐδοξάσθη», καί «τετελείωται», καί ὅσα τῆς τοῦ ἡμετέρου φυράματος ταπεινότητος, καί ὅσα τῆς εὐγνωμοσύνης, ἵν᾿ οὕτως εἴπω, τοῦ γεννήματος πρός τόν γεννήτορα, καί ὅσα τοῦ μή ἀντίθεος εἶναι δείγματα, καί ὅσα πρός ἡμᾶς δι᾿ἔργων ἀρετῆς ὑποδείγματα.

Τί οὖν, διά ταῦτα τό ἑτέρωθεν προσμαρτυρούμενον τῷ Υἱῷ θεῖον οἷον ἀδιεξίτητον ὕψος ἀθετητέον, ὅτι «ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν», «καί πρός τόν Θεόν ἦν, καί Θεός ἦν», καί «πρό πάντων βουνῶν γεννᾶται», καί «πρό τοῦ ἡλίου διαμένει τό ὄνομα αὐτοῦ», καί «οὗτος ὁ Θεός καί οὐ λογισθήσεται ἕτερος πρός αὐτόν», αὐτός γάρ ἐστιν ὁ «μετά ταῦτα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συναναστραφείς», ὅτι τε αὐτός καί ὁ Πατήρ ἕν εἰσι, καί αὐτός ἐν τῷ Πατρί καί ὁ Πατήρ ἐν αὐτῷ, καί «ὁ ἑωρακώς αὐτόν ἑώρακε τόν Πατέρα», καί «μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἡ ἀρχή ἐν ἡμέρᾳ τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ», «καί κατακυριεύσει μετά (σελ. 190) τό ἀνταναιρεθῆναι τήν σελήνην», καί «πᾶν αὐτῷ γόνυ κάμψει ἐπουρανίων καί ἐπιγείων καί καταχθονίων», καί «ἡ βασιλεία αὐτοῦ, βασιλεία αἰώνιος», καί «βασιλεῖ ἑτέρῳ οὐχ ὑπολειφθήσεται».

Ταῦτα τοίνυν καί τ᾿ ἄλλα ὅσα τούτοις παραπλήσια, τά τοσοῦτο θαυμαστά, τά ἐπί τοσοῦτον ὑψηλά, τά οὕτως ἀνυπέρβλητα, διά τά ταπεινοῦντα τῶν ρημάτων συγκαθελκύσομεν αὐτοῖς; Ἀλλ᾿ οὐ ζητήσομέν τε καί στέρξομεν τό ἐγκεκρυμμένον τοῖς δοκοῦσι χαμερπέσιν ὑψηλόν καί τοῦ εὐσεβοῦς νοήματος γενόμενοι διαλύσομεν τό προσιστάμενον; Ἀλλά τῷ φαινομένῳ προσπταίσομέν τε καί πεσούμεθα καί ἐναπομενοῦμεν τῷ γράμματι; Οὔμενουν˙ ἀποκτένει γάρ τό γράμμα κατασπῶν ἀφ᾿ ὕψους τούς μή ἄνω πρός τό Πνεῦμα βλέποντας.

Ταῦτ᾿ ἄρα καί ἡμεῖς, ὅσοι καθαρῶς τοῦ Πνεύματος, ὅσοι καθάπερ αὐτό ἑαυτό διεσάφησε θεολογοῦμεν, ὅσοι μηδέν ἀνάξιον αὐτοῦ καί φρονοῦμεν καί κηρύττομεν, μηδ᾿ ἐξ ὧν λέγομεν ἐκβαῖνον˙ ἡμεῖς τοίνυν, κἄν τι μή ὁμόφωνον δοκῇ τῇ περί τοῦ ἁγίου μόνου καί προσκυνητοῦ Πνεύματος θεολογίᾳ καί αὐτό τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος διδόντος, νοήσομεν πνευματικῶς καί διευκρινήσομεν καί διαρρίψομεν τούς λίθους τοῦ προσκόμματος καί πᾶσι τρόποις ἀποδείξομεν τοῖς προτέροις τῶν Πατέρων ὁμολογοῦντας τούς ὑστέρους, κοινῇ τε καί ἰδίᾳ ἑαυτοῖς, καί ἡμᾶς αὐτούς αὐτοῖς καί κοινῇ πάντας τῷ κοινῷ τῇ φύσει δεσπότῃ καί κατά χάριν ἡμετέρῳ Πατρί. Ἐπεί δέ ὅσα σχεδόν ἀγνοοῦσι τῶν Γραφῶν ὑπ᾿ ἀπορίας ἤ κακοβουλίας πρός τήν οἰκείαν κακοδοξίαν οἱ Λατῖνοι περιτρέπουσι στρεβλοῦντες, πλείονα δέ εἰσιν αὐτοῖς τά ἀγνοούμενα τῶν δοκούντων αὐτοῖς ἀναντιρρήτων καί δι᾿ ὧν ὡς προφανῶν τόν περί αὐτούς ἐξαπατῶσιν ὄχλον, τούτων ἡμεῖς ἀρτίως μνησθέντας καί ταῦτα κακῶς παρ᾿ αὐτῶν ἐξειλλημένα Θεοῦ συναιρομένου ἀπελέγξαντες, (σελ. 192) καί οἷόν τινάς θεμελίους ὑποσπάσαντες, σαθρόν αὐτῶν ἀποδείξομεν τό ὅλον τῆς δυσεβείας οἰκοδόμημα.

Φέρε δή προθῶμεν, πρότερον τό καί πρότερον αὐτοῖς δοκοῦν παντάπασιν ἄμαχον, ὡς ὑπό τοῦ λόγου τῆς ἀληθείας εἰρημένον˙ «ἐνεφύσησεν αὐτοῖς καί εἶπε, λάβετε Πνεῦμα ἅγιον». Ὁρᾷς, φησί, πῶς σαφῶς καί ἐκ τοῦ Υἱοῦ τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον;