53. Moreover the surpassing excellence of the nature of the Spirit is to be learned not only from His having the same title as the Father and the Son, and sharing in their operations, but also from His being, like the Father and the Son, unapproachable in thought. For what our Lord says of the Father as being above and beyond human conception, and what He says of the Son, this same language He uses also of the Holy Ghost. “O righteous Father,” He says, “the world hath not known Thee,”  2  John xvii. 25. meaning here by the world not the complex whole compounded of heaven and earth, but this life of ours subject to death,  3  ἐπίκηρος. The force of the word as applied to this life is illustrated by the 61st Epigram of Callimachus: Τίς ξένος, ὦ ναυηγέ; Δεόντιχος ἐνθάδε νεκρὸν εὗρεν ἐπ᾽ αἰγιαλοῖς, χῶσε δὲ τῷδε τάφῳ δακρύσας ἐπίκηρον εὸν βίον· οὐδὲ γὰρ αὐτὸς ἥσυχος, αἰθυί& 219·ς δ᾽ ἶσα θαλασσοπορεῖ . and exposed to innumerable vicissitudes. And when discoursing of Himself He says, “Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me;”  4  John xiv. 19. again in this passage, applying the word  world to those who being bound down by this material and carnal life, and beholding  5  ἐπιβλέποντας , the reading of the Viennese ms. vulgo ἐπιτρέποντας. the truth by material sight alone,  6  μόνοις ὀφθαλμοῖς. were ordained, through their unbelief in the resurrection, to see our Lord no more with the eyes of the heart. And He said the same concerning the Spirit. “The Spirit of truth,” He says, “whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you.”  7  John xiv. 17. For the carnal man, who has never trained his mind to contemplation,  8  ἀγύμναστον ἔχων τὸν νοῦν. cf. Heb. v. 14. but rather keeps it buried deep in lust of the flesh,  9  τῷ φρονήματι τῆς σαρκός. cf. Rom. viii. 6 τὸ γὰρ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκὸς θάνατος. as in mud, is powerless to look up to the spiritual light of the truth. And so the world, that is life enslaved by the affections of the flesh, can no more receive the grace of the Spirit than a weak eye the light of a sunbeam. But the Lord, who by His teaching bore witness to purity of life, gives to His disciples the power of now both beholding and contemplating the Spirit. For “now,” He says, “Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you,”  10  John xv. 3. wherefore “the world cannot receive Him, because it seeth Him not,…but ye know Him; for he dwelleth with you.”  11  John xiv. 17. And so says Isaiah;—“He that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and Spirit to them that trample on it”  12  Is. xlii. 5, LXX. πατοῦσιν αὐτήν. So St. Basil’s argument requires us to translate the lxx. The “walk therein” of A.V. would not bear out his meaning. For this use of πατειν, cf. Soph., Ant. 745. οὐ γὰρ σέβεις τιμάς γε τὰς θεῶν πατῶν. So in the vulgate we read “et spiritum calcantibus eam,”—calcare bearing the sense of “trample on,” as in Juvenal, Sat. x. 86, “calcemus Cæsaris hostem.” The Hebrew bears no such meaning. ; for they that trample down earthly things and rise above them are borne witness to as worthy of the gift of the Holy Ghost. What then ought to be thought of Him whom the world cannot receive, and Whom saints alone can contemplate through pureness of heart? What kind of honours can be deemed adequate to Him?

[53] Οὐ μόνον δὲ ἐξ ὧν τὰς αὐτὰς προσηγορίας ἔχει καὶ κοινωνόν ἐστι τῶν ἐνεργειῶν Πατρὶ καὶ Υἱῷ, τὸ ὑπερέχον αὐτοῦ τῆς φύσεως γνώριμον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐξ ὧν ὁμοίως ἐστὶ πρὸς θεωρίαν δυσέφικτον. Ἃ γὰρ περὶ τοῦ Πατρός φησιν, ὡς ἐπέκεινα ὄντος ἀνθρωπίνης ἐννοίας, καὶ ἃ περὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ, ταὐτὰ ὁ Κύριος καὶ περὶ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος λέγει: «Πάτερ δίκαιε, καὶ ὁ κόσμος σε οὐκ ἔγνω», τὸν κόσμον λέγων νῦν, οὐχὶ τὸ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς σύστημα, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἐπίκηρον ταύτην καὶ μυρίαις μεταβολαῖς ὑποκειμένην ζωήν. Καὶ περὶ ἑαυτοῦ διαλεγόμενος: «Ἔτι μικρόν, φησί, καὶ ὁ κόσμος με οὐκέτι θεωρεῖ: ὑμεῖς δὲ θεωρεῖτέ με.» Πάλιν ἐνταῦθα τοὺς τῇ ὑλικῇ καὶ σαρκικῇ προσδεδεμένους ζωῇ, καὶ μόνοις ὀφθαλμοῖς τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐπιτρέποντας κόσμον προσαγορεύων, οἳ τῇ ἀπιστίᾳ τῆς ἀναστάσεως οὐκέτι ἔμελλον τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς τῆς καρδίας τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν ὄψεσθαι. Τὰ δὲ αὐτὰ καὶ περὶ τοῦ Πνεύματος εἶπε: «Τὸ Πνεῦμα, φησί, τῆς ἀληθείας, ὃ ὁ κόσμος οὐ δύναται λαβεῖν, ὅτι οὐ θεωρεῖ αὐτό, οὐδὲ γινώσκει αὐτό. Ὑμεῖς δὲ γινώσκετε αὐτό, ὅτι παρ' ὑμῖν μένει.» Ὁ μὲν γὰρ σάρκινος ἄνθρωπος, ἀγύμναστον ἔχων πρὸς θεωρίαν τὸν νοῦν, μᾶλλον δὲ ὅλον, ὥσπερ ἐν βορβόρῳ, τῷ φρονήματι τῆς σαρκὸς κατορωρυγμένον φέρων, ἀδυνατεῖ πρὸς τὸ πνευματικὸν φῶς τῆς ἀληθείας ἀναβλέψαι. Διὸ ὁ κόσμος, τουτέστιν ἡ τοῖς πάθεσι τῆς σαρκὸς δεδουλωμένη ζωή, οἷον ὀφθαλμὸς ἀσθενὴς φῶς ἡλιακῆς ἀκτῖνος, τὴν τοῦ Πνεύματος χάριν οὐχ ὑποδέχεται. Τοῖς μέντοι μαθηταῖς ἑαυτοῦ καθαρότητα ζωῆς ἐκ τῶν διδαγμάτων αὐτοῦ μαρτυρήσας ὁ Κύριος, τὸ καὶ ἐποπτικοῖς ἤδη εἶναι καὶ θεωρητικοῖς τοῦ Πνεύματος ἀποδίδωσιν. «Ἤδη γάρ, φησίν, ὑμεῖς καθαροί ἐστε, διὰ τὸν λόγον ὃν λελάληκα ὑμῖν.» Ὅθεν ὁ μὲν κόσμος οὐ δύναται λαβεῖν: οὐ γὰρ θεωρεῖ αὐτό: «Ὑμεῖς δὲ γινώσκετε αὐτό, ὅτι παρ' ὑμῖν μένει.» Ταὐτὰ λέγει καὶ Ἠσαΐας: «Ὁ στερεώσας τὴν γῆν καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ, καὶ δοὺς πνοὴν τῷ λαῷ τῷ ἐπ' αὐτῆς, καὶ Πνεῦμα τοῖς πατοῦσιν αὐτήν.» Οἱ γὰρ καταπατοῦντες τὰ γήϊνα καὶ ὑπεράνω αὐτῶν γενόμενοι, ἄξιοι τῆς δωρεᾶς τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος μεμαρτύρηνται. Τὸ οὖν ἀχώρητον μὲν τῷ κόσμῳ, τοῖς ἁγίοις δὲ μόνοις διὰ καθαρότητα τῆς καρδίας θεωρητόν, τί χρὴ νομίζεσθαι, ἢ τὰς ποταπὰς τιμὰς συμμέτρους ὑπάρχειν αὐτῷ;