2. These considerations are sufficient to dissuade anyone, be he never so contentious, from continuing to call the Spirit of God a creature, who is in God and searches the deep things of God and who is given from the Father through the Son; lest from this he shall be forced to call the Son also a creature, who is Word, Wisdom, Image, and Radiance, seeing whom we see the Father; and lest finally he should hear the words: ‘Whosoever denieth the Son hath not the Father.’ For such a man will soon be saying with the fool: ‘There is no God.’

None the less, so that our reply to the impious may be more fully established, it will be well to make use of those considerations which show that the Son is not a creature, to show that the Spirit is not a creature. The creatures come from nothing and their existence has a beginning; for, ‘In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth’, and what is in them. The Holy Spirit is, and is said to be, from God (so said the Apostle). But if the Son cannot be a creature because he does not come from nothing, but from God, then of necessity the Spirit is not a creature, for we have confessed that he comes from God. It is creatures that come from nothing.

Ἱκανὰ μὲν οὖν καὶ ταῦτα πεῖσαι καὶ πάντα ὁντινοῦν φιλόνεικον, μηκέτι λέγειν κτίσμα τοῦ Θεοῦ, τὸ ἐν τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ τὰ βάθη ἐρευνῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ ἐκ Πατρὸς δι' Υἱοῦ διδόμενον· ἵνα μὴ ἐκ τούτων ἀναγκασθῇ καὶ τὸν Υἱὸν εἰπεῖν κτίσμα, τὸν Λόγον, τὴν σοφίαν, τὸν χαρακτῆρα, τὸ ἀπαύγασμα, ὃν ὁρῶν τις ὁρᾷ τὸν Πατέρα, καὶ λοιπὸν ἀκούσῃ· «Ὁ ἀρνούμενος τὸν Υἱὸν, οὐδὲ τὸν Πατέρα ἔχει.» Λέξει γὰρ κατ' ὀλίγον ὁ τοιοῦτος, ὡς ὁ ἄφρων· «Οὐκ ἔστι Θεός.» Ὅμως δὲ ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἐκ πλειόνων δειχθῆ ναι τὸν κατὰ τῶν ἀσεβῶν ἔλεγχον καλὸν, ἐξ ὧν ὁ Υἱὸς δείκνυται μὴ ὢν κτίσμα, ἐκ τούτων δεῖξαι καὶ τὸ Πνεῦμα μὴ εἶναι κτίσμα. Ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων ἐστὶ τὰ κτίσματα, καὶ ἀρχὴν ἔχει τοῦ εἶναι· «Ἐν ἀρχῇ» γὰρ «ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν,» καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς. Τὸ δὲ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐστι, καὶ λέγεται, ὡς εἶπεν ὁ Ἀπόστολος. Εἰ δὲ ὁ Υἱὸς, ἐπειδὴ ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων οὐκ ἔστιν, ἀλλ' ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ, εἰκότως οὐκ ἂν εἴη κτίσμα, ἀνάγκη μηδὲ τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον εἶναι κτίσμα· ἐπειδὴ ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ ὡμολόγηται. Τὰ γὰρ κτίσματα ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων ἐστίν.