If, then, every height of man’s ability falls below the grandeur of the Spirit (for that is what the Word means in the metaphor of “footstool”), what vanity is theirs who think that there is within themselves a power so great that it rests with them to define the amount of value to be attributed to a being who is invaluable! And so they pronounce the Holy Spirit unworthy of some things which are associated with the idea of value, as if their own abilities could do far more than the Spirit, as estimated by them, is capable of. What pitiable, what wretched madness! They understand not what they are themselves when they talk like this, and what the Holy Spirit against Whom they insolently range themselves. Who will tell these people that men are “a spirit that goeth forth and returneth not again45    Wisdom xvi. 14.,” built up in their mother’s womb by means of a soiled conception, and returning all of them to a soiled earth; inheriting a life that is likened unto grass; blooming for a little during life’s illusion46    βιωτικῆς ἀπάτης., and then withering away, and all the bloom upon them being shed and vanishing; they themselves not knowing with certainty what they were before their birth, nor into what they will be changed, their soul being ignorant of her peculiar destiny as long as she tarries in the flesh? Such is man.

Εἰ οὖν πᾶν ὕψωμα δυνάμεως ἀνθρωπίνης κάτω τῆς μεγαλοπρεπείας τοῦ προσκυνουμένου ἐστί (τοῦτο γὰρ ὁ λόγος διὰ τοῦ ὑποποδίου τῶν ποδῶν ὑπαινίσσεται), τίς ἡ ματαιότης τῶν οἰομένων ἔχειν τινὰ δύναμιν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς τοσαύτην ὥστε ἐπ' αὐτοῖς εἶναι τὸ κατ' ἀξίαν τῆς τιμῆς ὁρίζειν τῇ ἀτιμήτῳ φύσει καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καί τινων τῶν εἰς τιμὴν ἐπινοουμένων ἀνάξιον κρίνειν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ὡς τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτῶν μεῖζον δυναμένης ἢ ὅσον χωρεῖ ἡ ἀξία τοῦ πνεύματος; ὢ τῆς ἐλεεινῆς αὐτῶν καὶ ταλαιπώρου παραπληξίας, τῶν μὴ συνιέντων αὐτοί τε τίνες εἰσὶν οἱ ταῦτα διαλεγόμενοι καὶ τί τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, ᾧ δι' ὑπερηφανίας ἑαυτοὺς ἀντεξάγουσιν! τίς [ἂν] εἴποι τοῖσδε [τοῖς] λαοῖς ὅτι ἄνθρωποί εἰσι πνεῦμα πορευόμενον καὶ οὐκ ἐπιστρέφον ἐν μήτρᾳ γυναικός, διὰ ῥυπαρᾶς συλλήψεως οἰκοδομούμενοι καὶ εἰς γῆν ῥυπαρὰν πάντες ἀναλυόμενοι, χόρτῳ προσεικασμένην τὴν ζωὴν λαχόντες, οἳ ἐπ' ὀλίγον διὰ τῆς βιωτικῆς ἀπάτης ἀνθήσαντες πάλιν ἀποξηραίνονται, καὶ τὸ ἄνθος περὶ αὐτοὺς καταρρυὲν ἀφανίζεται, οὔτε τι ὄντες πρὸ τῆς γενέσεως καὶ εἰς ὅ τι μεταχωρήσουσιν οὐκ ἀκριβῶς ἐπιστάμενοι, τῆς ψυχῆς τὴν ἰδίαν λῆξιν, ἕως ἂν ἐπιμένῃ τῇ σαρκί, ἀγνοούσης; ταῦτα οἱ ἄνθρωποι.