24. Further it is through the Spirit that we are all said to be partakers of God. For it says: ‘Know ye not that ye are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.’ If the Holy Spirit were a creature, we should have no participation of God in him. If indeed we were joined to a creature, we should be strangers to the divine nature inasmuch as we did not partake therein. But, as it is, the fact of our being called partakers of Christ and partakers of God shows that the unction and seal that is in us belongs, not to the nature of things originate, but to the nature of the Son who, through the Spirit who is in him, joins us to the Father. This John taught us, as is said above, when he wrote: ‘Hereby know we that we abide in God and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.’ But if, by participation in the Spirit, we are made ‘sharers in the divine nature’, we should be mad to say that the Spirit has a created nature and not the nature of God. For it is on this account that those in whom he is are made divine. If he makes men divine, it is not to be doubted that his nature is of God.

Yet more clearly, for the destruction of this heresy, the Psalmist sings, as we have said before, in the one hundred and third psalm: ‘Thou shalt take away thy Spirit, and they shall die and return to their dust. Thou shalt put forth thy Spirit, and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.’ And Paul wrote to Titus: ‘Through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,

which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ ’

But if the Father, through the Word, in the Holy Spirit, creates and renews all things, what likeness or kinship is there between the Creator and the creatures? How could he possibly be a creature, in whom all things are created? Such evil speech leads on to blasphemy against the Son; so that those who say the Spirit is a creature say also that the Word is a creature, through whom all things are created.

The Spirit is said to be, and is, the image of the Son. For ‘Whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son’. If then they admit that the Son is not a creature, neither may his image be a creature. For as is the image, so also must he be whose image it is. Hence the Word is justly and fitly confessed not to be a creature, because he is the image of the Father. He therefore who numbers the Spirit with the creatures will surely number the Son among them also, and thereby will speak evil of the Father as well, by speaking evil against his image.

Καὶ διὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος λεγόμεθα πάντες μέτοχοι τοῦ Θεοῦ· «Οὐκ οἴδατε, γάρ φησιν, ὅτι ναὸς Θεοῦ ἐστε, καὶ τὸ Πνεῦμα τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν ὑμῖν οἰκεῖ; Εἴ τις τὸν ναὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ φθείρει, φθερεῖ τοῦτον ὁ Θεός. Ὁ γὰρ ναὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἅγιός ἐστιν, οἵτινές ἐστε ὑμεῖς.» Εἰ κτίσμα δὲ ἦν τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, οὐκ ἄν τις ἐν αὐτῷ μετουσία τοῦ Θεοῦ γένοιτο ἡμῖν· ἀλλ' ἢ ἄρα κτίσματι μὲν συνηπτόμεθα, ἀλλότριοι δὲ τῆς θείας φύσεως ἐγινόμεθα, ὡς κατὰ μηδὲν αὐτῆς μετέχοντες. Νῦν δὲ, ὅτε λεγόμεθα μέτοχοι Χριστοῦ καὶ μέτοχοι Θεοῦ, δείκνυται τὸ ἐν ἡμῖν χρίσμα καὶ ἡ σφραγὶς μὴ οὖσα τῆς τῶν γενητῶν φύσεως, ἀλλὰ τῆς τοῦ Υἱοῦ, διὰ τοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ Πνεύματος συνάπτοντος ἡμᾶς τῷ Πατρί. Τοῦτο γὰρ ὁ Ἰωάννης, ὡς ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν εἴρηται, διδάσκων ἔγραψεν· «Ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκομεν, ὅτι ἐν τῷ Θεῷ μένομεν, καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν ἡμῖν, ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ Πνεύματος αὐτοῦ αὐτὸς ἔδωκεν ἡμῖν.» Εἰ δὲ τῇ τοῦ Πνεύματος μετουσίᾳ γινόμεθα κοινωνοὶ θείας φύσεως, μαίνοιτ' ἄν τις λέγων τὸ Πνεῦμα τῆς κτιστῆς φύσεως, καὶ μὴ τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ ἐν οἷς γίνεται, οὗτοι θεοποιοῦνται· εἰ δὲ θεοποιεῖ, οὐκ ἀμφίβολον, ὅτι ἡ τούτου φύσις Θεοῦ ἐστι. Καὶ ἔτι δὲ φανερώτε ρον εἰς ἀναίρεσιν τῆς αἱρέσεως ταύτης ἐν τῷ ἑκα τοστῷ τρίτῳ ψαλμῷ ᾄδεται, ὡς ἔμπροσθεν εἴπομεν· «Ἀντανελεῖς τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐκλείψουσι, καὶ εἰς τὸν χοῦν αὐτῶν ἐπιστρέψουσιν. Ἐξαποστελεῖς τὸ Πνεῦμά σου, καὶ κτισθήσονται, καὶ ἀνακαινιεῖς τὸ πρόσωπον τῆς γῆς.» Ὁ δὲ Παῦλος γράφει Τίτῳ· «∆ιὰ λουτροῦ παλιγγενεσίας καὶ ἀνακαινώσεως Πνεύματος ἁγίου, οὗ ἐξέχεεν ἐφ' ἡμᾶς πλουσίως διὰ Ἰη σοῦ Χριστοῦ.» Εἰ δὲ ὁ Πατὴρ διὰ τοῦ Λόγου ἐν Πνεύματι ἁγίῳ κτίζει τὰ πάντα, καὶ ἀνακαινίζει· ποία ὁμοιότης ἢ συγγένεια τῷ κτίζοντι πρὸς τὰ κτίσματα; Ἢ ὅλως πῶς ἂν εἴη, ἐν ᾧ κτίζεται τὰ πάντα, κτίσμα; Ἀκολουθεῖ γὰρ τῇ τοιαύτῃ δυσφη μίᾳ καὶ ἡ εἰς τὸν Υἱὸν βλασφημία· ὥστε τοὺς λέγοντας τὸ Πνεῦμα κτίσμα εἰπεῖν, ὅτι καὶ ὁ Λόγος, δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα κτίζεται, κτίσμα ἐστίν. Εἰκὼν τοῦ Υἱοῦ λέγεται καὶ ἔστι τὸ Πνεῦμα· «Οὓς» γὰρ «προ έγνω καὶ προώρισε συμμόρφους τῆς εἰκόνος τοῦ Υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ.» Οὐκοῦν τοῦ Υἱοῦ καὶ κατ' ἐκείνους ὁμολογουμένου μὴ εἶναι κτίσματος, οὐκ ἂν εἴη οὐδὲ ἡ τούτου εἰκὼν κτίσμα. Ὁποία γὰρ ἂν εἴη ἡ εἰκὼν, τοιοῦτον ἀνάγκη καὶ τὸν, οὗ ἐστιν ἡ εἰκὼν, εἶναι. Ὅθεν εἰκότως καὶ πρεπόντως ὁ Λόγος ὁμολογεῖται μὴ ὢν κτίσμα, εἰκὼν τοῦ Πατρὸς ὑπάρχων· ὁ ἄρα τοῖς κτίσμασι συναριθμῶν τὸ Πνεῦμα πάντως που καὶ τὸν Υἱὸν ἐν τούτοις συναριθμήσει, δυσφημῶν ἐν τούτῳ καὶ τὸν Πατέρα διὰ τὴν εἰς τὴν εἰκόνα τούτου δυσφημίαν.