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is, and a defined quantity; for these things alone are properties of the Godhead. But the greatness of the Holy Spirit is indissoluble, infinite and everywhere and through all things and in all things always is; filling the world and holding it together according to its divinity, but uncontainable according to its power, and measuring, but not being measured. "For God does not give the Spirit by measure," as the Savior says in John; and according to Wisdom, which says: "For you love all things that exist, and you loathe none of the things which you have made; for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. How would anything have endured if you had not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved? But you spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you lover of souls, and your incorruptible spirit is in all things." Hence also we rightly name God the Father of all, not being our Father by nature, as he is of his only-begotten. And again: "The spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and that which holds all things together has knowledge of every voice;" which is to say, it has encompassed the invisible and visible creation, the intelligible and the sensible, and nothing of all things is without a share in his eternal oversight; for "to hold all things together" means this. And he hears, it says, every voice, as God being in all things everywhere always, and bringing every material disharmony into its proper order, and sparing and caring for the things made by him, since he himself is by nature providence and wisdom, having passed through all things, like the Father. For who is it that has such knowledge? And Isaiah speaks thus: "the spirit of knowledge and piety," and David sings in addition: "Where shall I go from your face? And where shall I flee from your spirit?" And the Master, teaching that the divinity of the Holy Spirit is not circumscribed by place, but is at once in heaven and on earth, having always provided and providing all sufficiency to creation, said in John: "If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another comforter, that he may be with you, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; but you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you." And that it may be known that such testimonies also show it to be of the one infinite nature present everywhere; they delivered the same things concerning each undefiled hypostasis, Jeremiah explaining from God the Father: "'Do I not fill heaven and earth?' says the Lord;" and David singing about the Son in the 144th Psalm: "and of his greatness there is no end;" and Paul preaching about the same: "He who descended is the same one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things." 6.3ν That what is incorruptible, creation, is not altogether incorruptible; but it is subject to corruption, that is, change, which we also call alteration, as the prophecy says: "who makes all things and alters them." Having heard this, the wise men from outside say: resolving things into themselves, and from them making them grow again. For the incorporeal rational creation has corruption according to choice, though God gave it a stable nature, and established it forever, and for the age of the age; but it changes of its own choice, and falls into a worse lot, and by this very thing is corrupted, so as to lose, as it were, from this the right to be called eternal. For whatever goes out of itself, that is, is altered, finds death, even if it otherwise endures, its own alteration. For whatever you might conceive to have come into being afterwards, this is the death of the former; just as when wickedness becomes goodness it is put to death by that from which it departed, by goodness; and conversely, goodness by wickedness. For there are some things which, although it was not denied to them, do not endure to always stand in their first state. Therefore they proclaim these things in epistles, Peter: "For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell with chains of darkness, to be reserved for the judgment of the great day, and did not spare the ancient world;" and Jude:

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ἐστίν, καὶ ὡρισμένη ποσότης· μόνως γὰρ ταῦτα τῆς θεότητος ἴδια. ἡ δὲ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος μεγαλοσύνη ἀδιάλυτος, ἀπέραντος καὶ πανταχοῦ καὶ διὰ πάντων καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν ἀεί ἐστιν· πληροῦσα μὲν τὸν κόσμον καὶ συνέχουσα κατὰ τὴν θεότητα, ἀχώρητος δὲ κατὰ τὴν δύναμιν, καὶ μετροῦσα μέν, οὐ μετρουμένη δέ. «οὐ γὰρ ἐκ μέτρου δίδωσιν ὁ θεὸς τὸ πνεῦμα,» ὡς ὁ σωτὴρ ἐν Ἰωάννῃ λέγει· καὶ κατὰ τὴν Σοφίαν, ἔχουσαν· «ἀγαπᾷς γὰρ τὰ ὄντα πάντα, καὶ οὐδὲν βδελύσσῃ, ὧν ἐποίησας· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἂν μισῶν τι κατεσκεύασας. πῶς δὲ ἔμεινεν ἄν τι, εἰ μὴ σὺ ἠθέλησας ἢ τὸ μὴ βληθὲν ὑπὸ σοῦ ἐτηρήθη; φείδῃ δὲ πάν των, ὅτι πάντα σά ἐστιν, δέσποτα φιλόψυχε, καὶ τὸ ἄφθαρτόν σου πνεῦμά ἐστιν ἐν πᾶσιν.» ἔνθεν καὶ πατέρα πάντων τὸν θεὸν εἰκότως ὀνομάζομεν, οὐκ ὄντα ἡμῶν φύσει πατέρα, ὡς ἔστιν τοῦ μονογενοῦς αὐτοῦ. καὶ πάλιν· «πνεῦμα κυρίου πεπλήρωκεν τὴν οἰκουμένην, καὶ τὸ συνέχον τὰ πάντα γνῶσιν ἔχει φωνῆς·» ἀντὶ τοῦ περιέλαβεν τὴν ἀόρατον καὶ ὁρατὴν κτίσιν, τὴν νοητὴν καὶ αἰσθητήν, καὶ οὐδὲν τῶν πάντων ἐστὶν ἄμοιρον τῆς ἀιδίου ἐπιστασίας αὐτοῦ· τὸ γὰρ πάντα συνέχειν τοῦτο δηλοῖ. καὶ πάσης, φησίν, ἐπακούει φωνῆς, ὡς θεὸς ἐν πᾶσιν πανταχοῦ ἀεὶ τυγχάνων, καὶ πᾶσαν ὑλικὴν ἀναρμοστίαν εἰς τάξιν περιάγων τὴν πρέπουσαν, καὶ τῶν πρὸς αὐτοῦ ποιηθέντων φειδόμενός τε καὶ ἐπιμελούμενος, ἅτε αὐτὸς τὴν φύσιν πρόνοια ὑπάρχων καὶ σοφία, δι' ὅλων διαπεφοιτηκυῖα, ὡς ὁ πατήρ. τίς γὰρ ὁ τοιαύτην ἔχων γνῶσιν; Ἡσαῖάς τε λέγει οὕτως· «πνεῦμα γνώσεως καὶ εὐσεβείας,» καὶ ὁ ∆αυὶδ προσᾴδει· «ποῦ πορευθῶ ἀπὸ τοῦ προσώπου σου; καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματός σου ποῦ φύγω;» καὶ ὁ δεσπότης δὲ διδάσκων, ὡς ἡ θεότης τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος οὐ περιγράφεται τόπῳ, ἀλλ' ὁμοῦ ἐν οὐρανῷ τέ ἐστιν καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς, πᾶσαν αὐτάρκειαν παρασχόμενον ἀεὶ καὶ παρεχόμενον τῇ κτίσει, ἔφη παρ' Ἰωάννῃ· «ἐὰν ἀγαπᾶτέ με, τὰς ἐντολὰς τὰς ἐμὰς τηρήσατε· κἀγὼ ἐρω τήσω τὸν πατέρα, καὶ ἄλλον παράκλητον δώσει ὑμῖν, ἵνα ᾖ μεθ' ὑμῶν τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας, ὃ ὁ κόσμος οὐ δύναται λαβεῖν, οὐ θεωρεῖ αὐτὸ οὐδὲ γινώσκει αὐτό· ὑμεῖς δὲ γινώσκετε αὐτὸ, ὅτι παρ' ὑμῖν μένει, καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν ἔσται.» ἵνα δὲ γνώριμον γένηται, ὡς τῆς πανταχοῦ παρούσης μιᾶς ἀπείρου φύσεως καὶ αἱ τοιαίδε μαρτυρίαι ἀποφαίνουσιν αὐτό· τὰ ἴσα παρέδοσαν περὶ ἑκατέρας ἀκηράτου ὑποστάσεως, Ἰερεμίας μὲν ἐξηγούμενος ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρός· «τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν ἐγὼ πληρῶ, λέγει κύριος·» ∆αυὶδ δὲ περὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἐν ρμδʹ ψαλμῷ κελαδῶν· «καὶ τῆς μεγαλοσύνης αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἔστιν πέρας·» Παῦλος δὲ κηρύττων περὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ· «ὁ καταβὰς αὐτός ἐστιν καὶ ὁ ἀναβὰς ὑπὲρ ἄνω πάντων τῶν οὐρανῶν, ἵνα πληρώσῃ τὰ πάντα.» 6.3ν ὅτι ἄφθαρτον ἡ κτίσις οὐκ ἄφθαρτος καθάπαξ ἐστίν· ἀλλὰ φθορὰν ἐπιδέχεται, τὴν τροφήν, ἥν φαμεν καὶ μεταβολήν, ὡς ἡ προφητεία λέγει· «ὁ ποιῶν πάντα καὶ μετασκευάζων αὐτά.» ἧς κατακούσαντες τῶν ἔξω σοφοί, φασίν· αὐτὰ λύων εἰς αὐτά, καὶ ἐξ αὐτῶν πάλιν αὔξων. ἡμὲν γὰρ ἀσώματος λογικὴ κτίσις τὴν κατὰ προαίρεσιν ἔχει φθοράν, τοῦ μὲν θεοῦ μόνιμον αὐτῇ φύσιν δεδωκότος, καὶ στήσαντος αὐτὴν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, καὶ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος· αὐτῆς δὲ αὐτοπροαιρέτως μεταβαλλομένης, καὶ εἰς χείρονα ἐκπιπτούσης λῆξιν, καὶ αὐτῷ τούτῳ φθειρομένης, ὡς ἀπολλύειν οἷον ἐκ τούτου τὸ καλεῖσθαι αἰώνιος τὸ γὰρ ὁτιδήποτε ἐξερχόμενον ἑαυτοῦ, τουτέστιν ἀλλασσόμενον, θάνατον εὑρίσκει, κἂν ἄλλως διαμένει, τὴν ἰδίαν ἀλλοίωσιν. καὶ γὰρ ὅπερ ἂν νοήσαις γεγενῆσθαι ἔπειτα, τοῦτο θάνατος τοῦ προτέρου ἐστίν· οἷόν τι ἡ κακία γενομένη ἀγαθότης θανατοῦται αὐτῷ, ᾧ ἀπέστη, ὑπὸ τῆς ἀγαθότητος· καὶ τὸ ἔμπαλιν, ἡ ἀγαθότης ὑπὸ τῆς κακίας. ἔστιν γάρ τινα, ἅπερ ἀεὶ ἑστάναι τῷ πρώτῳ ὅρῳ, εἰ καὶ μὴ ἠρνήθη τοῦτο αὐτοῖς, οὐκ ἀνέχεται. τοιγαροῦν διαγορεύουσιν ἐν ἐπιστολαῖς ταῦτα, Πέτρος μέν· «εἰ γὰρ ἀγγέλων ἁμαρτησάντων οὐκ ἐφείσατο ὁ θεός. ἀλλὰ σειραῖς ζόφου ταρταρώσας, εἰς κρίσιν μεγάλης ἡμέρας τετήρηκεν καὶ ἀρ χαίου κόσμου οὐκ ἐφείσατο·» Ἰούδας δέ·