Again, let us look at it in this way. Kingship is most assuredly shown in the rule over subjects. Now what is “subject” to this Kingly Being? The Word includes the ages certainly, and all that is in them; “Thy Kingdom,” it says, “is a Kingdom of ages,” and, by ages, it means every substance in them created in infinite space36    ἐκ τοῦ περιέχοντος. This expression of Anaxagoras is repeated more than once in the Treatise “On the Soul.”, whether visible or invisible; for in them all things were created by the Maker of those ages. If, then, the Kingship must always be thought of along with the King, and the world of subjects is acknowledged to be something other than the world of rulers, what absurdity it is for these men to contradict themselves thus, attributing as they do the unction as an expression for the worth of Him Whose very nature it is to be a King, yet degrading that unction Itself to the rank of a subject, as if wanting in such worth! If It is a subject by virtue of its nature, then why is It made the unction of Kingship, and so associated with the Kingly dignity of the Only-begotten? If, on the other hand, the capacity to rule is shown by Its being included in the majesty of Kingship, where is the necessity of having everything dragged down to a plebeian37    ἰδιωτικήν. On 1 Cor. xiv. 16, ῾Ο ἀναπληρῶν τὸν τόπον τοῦ ἰδιώτου, Theodoret says, “ἰδιώτην καλεῖ τὸν ἐν τῷ λαικῷ τάγματι τεταγμένον.” Theophylact also renders the word by the same equivalent. and servile lower condition, and numbered with the subject creation? When we affirm of the Spirit the two conditions, we cannot be in both cases speaking the truth: i.e. that He is ruling, and that He is subject. If He rules, He is not under any lord, but if He is subject, then He cannot be comprehended with the Being who is a King. Men are recognized as amongst men, angels amongst angels, everything amongst its kind; and so the Holy Spirit must needs be believed to belong to one only of two worlds; to the ruling, or to the inferior world; for between these two our reason can recognize nothing; no new invention of any natural attribute on the borderland of the Created and the Uncreated can be thought of, such as would participate in both, yet be neither entirely; we cannot imagine such an amalgamation and welding together of opposites by anything being blended of the Created and the Uncreated, and two opposites thus coalescing into one person, in which case the result of that strange mixture would not only be a composite thing, but composed of elements that were unlike, and disagreeing as to time; for that which receives its personality from a creation is assuredly posterior to that which subsists without a creation. If, then, they declare the Holy Ghost to be blended of both, they must consequently view that blending as of a prior with a posterior thing; and, according to them, He will be prior to Himself; and reversely, posterior to Himself; from the Uncreated He will get the seniority, and from the Created the juniority. But, in the nature of things, this cannot be; and so it must most certainly be true to affirm of the Holy Spirit one only of these alternatives, and that is, the attribute of being Uncreated.

Ἔπειτα καὶ τοῦτο σκοπήσωμεν: ἡ βασιλεία ἐν τῇ τῶν ὑποχειρίων ἀρχῇ πάντως γνωρίζεται. τί οὖν τῆς βασιλευούσης φύσεώς ἐστι τὸ ὑπήκοον; τοὺς αἰῶνας πάντως καὶ τὰ ἐν τούτοις ὁ λόγος καταλαμβάνει: Ἡ γὰρ βασιλεία σου, φησίν, βασιλεία πάντων τῶν αἰώνων. αἰῶνας δὲ λέγων πᾶσαν ἐκ τοῦ περιέχοντος τὴν ἐν αὐτοῖς συστᾶσαν κτίσιν περιλαμβάνει τήν τε ὁρατὴν καὶ ἀόρατον: ἐν αὐτοῖς γὰρ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα διὰ τοῦ ποιητοῦ τῶν αἰώνων. εἰ οὖν ἡ βασιλεία πάντοτε μετὰ τοῦ βασιλέως νοεῖται, ἡ δὲ ὑποχείριος φύσις ἄλλο τι παρὰ τὴν ἄρχουσαν ὁμολογεῖται, τίς ἡ ἀτοπία τῶν ἑαυτοῖς μαχομένων, τῶν προστιθέντων μὲν τὸ χρίσμα τῷ κατὰ φύσιν βασιλεῖ ὡς ἀξίωμα, καταγόντων δὲ αὐτὸ τοῦτο εἰς τὴν ὑποχείριον τάξιν ὡς τῆς ἀξίας καταδεέστερον; εἰ μὲν γὰρ τῶν ὑπηκόων κατὰ τὴν φύσιν ἐστίν, πῶς τῷ τῆς βασιλείας ἀξιώματι τοῦ μονογενοῦς συναρμόζεται χρίσμα βασιλείας γινόμενον; εἰ δὲ τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν αὐτοῦ διὰ τοῦ συμπαραληφθῆναι εἰς τὴν τῆς βασιλείας μεγαλοπρέπειαν δείκνυται, τίς ἡ ἀνάγκη καθαιρεῖσθαι πάντα εἰς ἰδιωτικήν τε καὶ δουλικὴν ταπεινότητα τῇ δουλευούσῃ κτίσει συναριθμούμενον; οὐ γὰρ δὴ τὰ δύο περὶ αὐτοῦ λέγοντα δυνατόν ἐστιν ἐν ἑκατέρῳ τἀληθῆ λέγειν, ὅτι καὶ ἡγεμονικόν ἐστι καὶ ὑποχείριον. εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἡγεῖται, οὐ κυριεύεται: εἰ δὲ δουλεύει, οὐκέτι μετὰ τῆς βασιλευούσης φύσεως καταλαμβάνεται. ὡς γὰρ μετὰ ἀνθρώπων ἄνθρωποι καὶ μετὰ ἀγγέλων ἄγγελοι καὶ πάντα μετὰ τῶν ὁμοφύλων ἐπιγινώσκεται, οὕτω μεθ' ἑνὸς ἑκατέρων ὁμολογεῖσθαι τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστιν ἢ μετὰ τῆς κυριευούσης ἢ μετὰ τῆς ὑποκυπτούσης φύσεως. μέσον γὰρ τούτων ἐπιγινώσκει ὁ λόγος οὐδέν, ὥστε τινὰ φύσεως ἰδιότητα ἐν μεθορίῳ τοῦ τε κτιστοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἀκτίστου καινοτομηθεῖσαν μεταξὺ τούτων εἶναι νομίζεσθαι, ὡς καὶ ἀμφοτέρων μετέχειν καὶ οὐθέτερον τελείως εἶναι. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐνδέχεται μίξιν τινὰ τῶν ἐναντίων καὶ συμπλοκὴν ἐννοῆσαι τοῦ κτιστοῦ πρὸς τὸ ἄκτιστον συνανακιρναμένων καὶ δύο τῶν ἐναντίων εἰς μίαν ὑπόστασιν συμμιγνυμένων: ὡς μὴ μόνον σύνθετον εἶναι τὸ διὰ τῆς ἀλλοκότου ταύτης μίξεως ἀναπλασσόμενον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐξ ἀνομοίων ἔχον τὴν σύνθεσιν καὶ κατὰ τὸν χρόνον οὐ συμφωνούντων: τοῦ γὰρ ἀκτίστως ὑφεστῶτος τὸ διὰ κτίσεως τὴν ὑπόστασιν ἔχον μεταγενέστερον πάντως ἐστίν, εἰ οὖν μεμίχθαι τὴν τοῦ πνεύματος φύσιν πρὸς ἑκάτερα λέγουσιν, ἄρα καὶ τοῦ πρεσβυτέρου πρὸς τὸ νεώτερον μίξιν τινὰ ἐννοήσουσι: καὶ ἔσται κατ' αὐτοὺς ἑαυτοῦ τι πρεσβύτερον καὶ ἑαυτοῦ τι πάλιν μεταγενέστερον, ὡς καὶ τῷ ἀκτίστῳ τὸ ἀρχαιότερον ἔχειν καὶ τῷ κτιστῷ τὸ νεώτερον. ἐπεὶ οὖν τοῦτο φύσιν οὐκ ἔχει, ἀνάγκη πάντως τὸ ἕτερον τούτων ἐπὶ τοῦ πνεύματος ἀληθὲς εἶναι λέγειν, ὅπερ ἐστὶ τὸ ἄκτιστον.