What shall we answer to this? That the thoughts of their hearts are so much idle talk, when they imagine that the Spirit was not always with the Father and the Son, but that, as occasion varies, He is sometimes to be contemplated as alone, sometimes to be found in the closest union with Them. For if the heaven, and the earth, and all created things were really made through the Son and from the Father, but apart from the Spirit, what was the Holy Spirit doing at the time when the Father was at work with the Son upon the Creation? Was He employed upon some other works, and was this the reason that He had no hand in the building of the Universe? But, then, what special work of the Spirit have they to point to, at the time when the world was being made? Surely, it is senseless folly to conceive of a creation other than that which came into existence from the Father through the Son. Well, suppose that He was not employed at all, but dissociated Himself from the busy work of creating by reason of an inclination to ease and rest, which shrank from toil? May the gracious Spirit Himself pardon this baseless supposition of ours! The blasphemy of these theorists, which we have had to follow out in every step it takes, has caused us unwittingly to soil our discussion with the mud of their own imaginings.

τί οὖν ἡμεῖς πρὸς τοῦτο ἀποκρινούμεθα; ὅτι μάταια ἐλάλησαν ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις αὐτῶν οἱ νομίζοντες μὴ ἀεὶ μετὰ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ τὸ πνεῦμα εἶναι, ἀλλὰ κατὰ καιρούς τινας ποτὲ μὲν ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ θεωρεῖσθαι, ποτὲ δὲ συνημμένως καταλαμβάνεσθαι. εἰ γὰρ χωρὶς τοῦ πνεύματος γέγονεν ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ ἡ γῆ καὶ πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ μόνου ἐκ τοῦ πατρός, εἰπάτωσαν οἱ ταῦτα λέγοντες, τί ἐποίει τότε τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, ὅτε ὁ πατὴρ μετὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ τὴν κτίσιν ἐνήργει; ἄλλοις τισὶν ἔργοις προσησχολεῖτο καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τῆς κτίσεως τῶν πάντων οὐ συνεφήπτετο; καὶ τί ἔχουσι δεῖξαι ἰδιάζον ἔργον τοῦ πνεύματος, ὅτε ἡ κτίσις συνίστατο; ἦ μωρόν ἐστι καὶ ἀνόητον τὸ καὶ ἄλλην κτίσιν παρὰ τὴν ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ ὑφεστῶσαν ἐπινοεῖν. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἠσχολεῖτο μέν, ῥᾳθυμίᾳ δέ τινι καὶ ῥᾳστώνῃ καὶ τῷ περὶ τοὺς πόνους ὄκνῳ τῆς περὶ τὴν κτίσιν σπουδῆς ἐχωρίζετο. ἀλλ' ἵλεως εἴη ἡμῖν ἐπὶ τῇ ματαιότητι ταύτῃ τῇ τῶν λόγων αὐτὴ ἡ τοῦ πνεύματος χάρις. τῇ γὰρ ἀτοπίᾳ τῶν τὰ τοιαῦτα δογματιζόντων κατ' ἴχνος ἑπόμενοι ἀβουλήτως ταῖς ἐννοίαις αὐτῶν οἷόν τινι βορβόρῳ τὸν λόγον κατερρυπώσαμεν.