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 upon the testimony in Holy Scripture about the Spirit, whence we learn that the Holy Spirit is Divine, and is to be called so. Now, if they allow this, and will not contradict the words of inspiration, then they, with all their eagerness to fight with us, must tell us why they are for contending with us, instead of with Scripture. We say nothing different from that which Scripture says.—But in a Divine nature, as such, when once we have believed in it, we can recognize no distinctions suggested either by the Scripture teaching or by our own common sense; distinctions, that is, that would divide that Divine and transcendent nature within itself by any degrees of intensity and remission, so as to be altered from itself by being more or less. Because we firmly believe that it is simple, uniform, incomposite, because we see in it no complicity or composition of dissimilars, therefore it is that, when once our minds have grasped the idea of Deity, we accept by the implication of that very name the perfection in it of every conceivable thing that befits the Deity. Deity, in fact, exhibits perfection in every line in which the good can be found. If it fails and comes short of perfection in any single point, in that point the conception of Deity will be impaired, so that it cannot, therein, be or be called Deity at all; for how could we apply that word to a thing that is imperfect and deficient, and requiring an addition external to itself?

Τί οὖν ὁ ἡμέτερος λόγος; οὐδὲν καινὸν ἡμεῖς οὐδὲ παρ' ἡμῶν αὐτῶν τοῖς τὰ τοιαῦτα προκαλουμένοις ἀποκρινούμεθα, ἀλλὰ ἀποχρησόμεθα τῇ τῆς θείας γραφῆς περὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος μαρτυρίᾳ, δι' ἧς θεῖον τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον εἶναί τε καὶ λέγεσθαι μεμαθήκαμεν. εἰ οὖν συντίθενται καὶ αὐτοὶ τούτῳ καὶ μὴ ἀντιβαίνουσι ταῖς θεοπνεύστοις φωναῖς, εἰπάτωσαν οἱ πρὸς τὸν καθ' ἡμῶν πόλεμον ἕτοιμοι, τίνος ἕνεκεν οὐ πρὸς τὴν γραφήν, ἀλλὰ πρὸς ἡμᾶς διαμάχονται; οὐδὲ γὰρ ἡμεῖς ἄλλο τι παρὰ τοῦτό φαμεν. θείας δὲ φύσεως [εἶναι τὸ πνεῦμα] ὁμολογοῦντες οὐδεμίαν ἐπιγινώσκομεν οὔτε ἐκ τῆς τῶν γραφῶν διδασκαλίας οὔτε ἐκ τῶν κοινῶν ἐννοιῶν κατ' αὐτὸ τοῦτο διαφοράν: ὥστε μεμερίσθαι πρὸς ἑαυτὴν τὴν θείαν τε καὶ ὑπερέχουσαν φύσιν διά τινος ἐπιτάσεως ἢ ὑφέσεως παρὰ τὸ πλέον τε καὶ ἔλαττον αὐτὴν πρὸς ἑαυτὴν διαλλάττουσαν. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἁπλῆ καὶ μονοειδὴς καὶ ἀσύνθετος εἶναι πεπίστευται καὶ οὐδεμία πλοκὴ καὶ σύνθεσις ἐξ ἀνομοίων περὶ αὐτὴν θεωρεῖται, διὰ τοῦτο, ἐπειδὰν ἅπαξ θείαν φύσιν τῇ ψυχῇ ἐννοήσωμεν, τὸ ἐν παντὶ θεοπρεπεῖ νοήματι τέλειον διὰ τοῦ ὀνόματος τούτου συμπαρεδεξάμεθα: τὸ γὰρ θεῖον ἐν παντὶ τῷ κατὰ τὸ ἀγαθὸν λόγῳ τὸ τέλειον ἔχει. εἰ δὲ ἐλλείποι τινὶ καὶ ὑστερίζοι κατά τι τῆς τελειότητος, κατὰ τὸ ἐλλεῖπον χωλεύσει καὶ ὁ τῆς θεότητος λόγος ὡς μηκέτι θεῖον ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ μέρει ἢ εἶναι ἢ λέγεσθαι. πῶς γὰρ ἄν τις τῷ ἀτελεῖ καὶ ἐλλείποντι καὶ τῆς ἑτέρωθεν προσθήκης προσδεομένῳ τὴν προσηγορίαν ταύτην ἁρμόσειεν;