Chapter IX.
You have heard from what has been spoken to you how our blessed Fathers instructed us successively and according to the teaching of the Sacred Books concerning the Father and the Son without neglecting the Economy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Let us now bring forth what is written after this. The question will deal now with the Holy Spirit, and our blessed Fathers who assembled from all parts in the town of Nicea for the sake of that wonderful Council wrote about Him simply and without amplification by saying: And in the Holy Spirit. They thought that this would be sufficient for the ears of that period. Those who after them handed to us a complete doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit were the Western Bishops who by themselves assembled in a Synod, as they were unable to come to the East on account of the persecution that the Arians inflicted on this country. And later, when Divine grace put an end to the persecution, the Eastern Bishops gladly accepted the doctrine handed down by (the Bishops of) that Western Synod, concurred in their decision, and by subscribing to what they had said, showed their adhesion to them. If one looks deeply into the matter, however, one will find that they derived their reason for the complementary addition that they made later in their teaching concerning the Holy Spirit from the blessed Fathers who had assembled from the whole world in the first Council held in the town of Nicea.
The reason why our blessed Fathers did not hand down to us in a complete form all things that were said later concerning the Holy Spirit is clear and evident, and it is that at that time had risen the unholy Arius who was the first to blaspheme against the Son of God, and assert wickedly that the Only Begotten Son of God, and God the Word, was created and made from nothing. Because of this our |94 blessed Fathers rightly assembled and held a wonderful Council. The time was propitious for their gathering because the God-loving and the blessed Constantine urged them to it in order to destroy the wickedness of the heretics and to confirm the faith of the Church. This is the reason why they made use in their doctrine concerning the Son of clear statements and copious words for the destruction of the heresy of Arius and the confirmation of the true faith of the Church of God. They did not do the same in the case of the Holy Spirit because at that time no question had yet been raised concerning Him by the heretics. They thought that for a complete belief in the true faith it would be sufficient to insert in their creed the name of the Spirit in its right place according to the teaching of our Lord, and to teach all men that in the Creed and in the profession of faith it ought to be pronounced with that of the Father and of the Son. It is not possible for any one to have faith if he does not name, profess, and believe in, the Holy Spirit together with the Father and the Son.
This is the meaning of their words in saying: And in the Holy Spirit. Men who did not include (in their words) any created being would not have inserted the Holy Spirit with so much care in their faith and in their creed side by side with the Father and the Son had they not wished to separate in this same creed all the created beings from the uncreated nature. It was thus necessary that the Spirit should be named and professed side by side with the Father and the Son, because He also is from the uncreated nature, existing from eternity, and cause of everything, to which adoration is due to the exclusion of all created beings. That this is so our profession of faith testifies; indeed faith is not professed in a created nature but in a Divine and uncreated nature; nor did our blessed Fathers discover and write a new doctrine from their own head but they clearly followed the teaching of our Lord who taught His disciples, saying: "Go ye and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
It is clear and evident that He made His disciples the teachers of all the world and ordered them to convert all men from the error of polytheism to which they were formerly clinging—by ascribing the name of God to creatures and giving honour to natures which did not |95 deserve honour—and to teach them to offer true worship only to the Divine nature which is eternal, not made, and the cause of everything. He did not order them to convert all nations from the error of worshipping those who are not gods by nature in order to bring them to the discipleship of one who is not God by nature, but He did order them to preach, instead of those who were wrongly called gods, the nature which is not made, is eternal and the cause of everything, and to which is rightly due the name of Lord and God because it is Lord and God by nature. The knowledge of religion consists in this faith, and it is (this faith) that is the cause of all good things.
It is in this name that we are baptised and expect that the communion of the ineffable Divine benefits will accrue to us through baptism. We would not have named at baptism a being that was not the cause of the benefits that we are expecting to possess. We name (Him) because we know that He has the power to grant us the heavenly and imperishable benefits in the hope of which we receive the gift of baptism. In the same way as (the Book) said: "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk" and showed that it was Christ who was the cause of the cure of the lame man, in this same way where it ordered: "Baptise in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost" it clearly showed that these names which are pronounced at baptism are the cause of all the benefits which we are expecting to possess. It is not to no purpose that it says: "in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost," but in order that from their names we may derive our hope of enjoying the future good things.
As such also is the sentence uttered by the prophet: "Beside Thee we know no other Lord. We are called by Thy name." (The prophet) shows here that they did not recognise nor did they name another Lord beside the one who is truly Lord. And again: "Because of Thy name we shall tread down our enemies," and: "In Thy name our horn shall be exalted," in order to show that they prevailed against their enemies through His name. In another passage he said: "I will call on the name of the Lord," that is to say, I have believed that He is the Lord and also the cause of all |96 good things to me. (Our Lord) said here also: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" in order that His disciples might learn from Him that all the nations were looking for this name as the cause of all their good things, because the nature which is called "Father, and Son and Holy Ghost," and in which we are baptised, is truly the Lord who is able to give us the heavenly good things which we are expecting and in the hope of which we draw nigh unto the grace of baptism.
As He ordered us to name the Father in the act of our disciple-ship and our baptism, because He is the Divine nature which is eternal and cause of everything and because He is able to vouchsafe unto us the benefits involved in the promise of baptism; and as He ordered us to name the Son because He has an identical nature and is able to vouchsafe unto us the same benefits, it is likewise evident that He named the Holy Spirit side by side with the Father and the Son for this very reason, that is to say because He is of the same nature as that which is eternal and cause of everything, to which is truly due the name of Lord and God. If in this creed He had wished to refer to a nature which was created and to another which was uncreated, we must admit that He neglected to name myriads of other created natures, that is to say, everything! A man with a sound mind will not think of such a thing.
It is clear that our Lord was handing down to us the doctrine of the Divine knowledge and teaching us the religious name which was congruous to the Divine nature in which we were to be baptised and which was able to vouchsafe unto us the future good things. We are thus ordered not to look for another name as the cause of the future good things except to that of the Divine nature which is eternal and cause of everything. It is, therefore, evident that He would not have named the Spirit side by side with the Father if they were not one Divine nature which was eternal and cause of everything, to which the name of Lord and God was truly due, and by the grace of which we shall also participate in the future good things.
Our blessed Fathers also meant this when they said: And in the Holy Spirit. They said this so that they might be understood by others that they were following the teaching of our Lord and so that they might intimate to every one that they also named the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son according to our Lord's doctrine, |97 because He also is, like the Son, of the same Divine nature of the Father, and we ought to believe in Him and to worship Him as the cause of the future good things. They left their statement in the above simple sentence without any amplification because no question had yet been raised by the heretics against the Holy Spirit; and they thought that the addition "Holy" placed after the name of the Spirit, according to the teaching of our Lord, was sufficient as a perfect doctrine for those by whom truth is honoured.
To men of good will the sentence used by our blessed Fathers according to the teaching of our Lord was indeed adequate, because they could not have taught us how to believe in things concerning a man in our profession of faith concerning God. They who taught clearly concerning the Son of God to the effect that we ought to believe in Him as consubstantial with God, would not have added in their profession of faith a word concerning the Holy Spirit had they not known that He also was of the same Divine nature of God the Father. The mere mention of the name "Holy Spirit" was sufficient to demonstrate His nature as taught to us by the Divine Book, which indeed would not have called Him by this exclusive name if He was not of Divine nature. Actually there are many things referred to by the word "spirit" in the Holy Scripture: the angels are called by it: "He made his angels a spirit," and also our soul: "His spirit goeth out and he returneth to his earth," and likewise the winds: "He causeth the spirits to blow and they cause waters to flow." Similarly all things which have a subtile nature in comparison with the visible objects, which our senses cannot accurately comprehend and which are not clearly defined, we call spirits.
Although numerous are the things which in common parlance are called spirits, yet this word "spirit" refers in an exclusive way, as the Holy Scripture teaches us, to the Godhead, which is incorporeal and can never be circumscribed. Holy Writ bears witness to the fact that it is called and is truly a spirit. This is the reason why our Lord said to the Samaritan woman who had believed that God was worshipped in a special place, and was contending against the Jews and asking |98 whether the place which was fit for worship was Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem: "God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." What He showed here amounted to this: all of you are in great error in believing that God is more in this or in that place. God being incorporeal and uncircumscribed is not confined to a place, but is in all places equally. A worship of duty and of truth is good and obligatory when man worships while believing that God is incorporeal and uncircumscribed, and thinks in clear conscience that God is not confined nor circumscribed in a place.
As there are many beings who bear the name of "I am" —as all things created from nothing are so called because they "are"— when God was asked by the blessed Moses about His name He answered: "I am that I am. This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." He did not mean to say that there is nothing else that is "I am," but that this name "I am" belongs prominently to Him, not that He once was "I am" and once was not, but that He was "I am" eternally and always. In this same way there are many beings who bear the name of "spirits," but the word "Spirit" refers pre-eminently and is due to Divine nature which is truly incorporeal and uncircumscribed. If, therefore, it were possible to contend that when the Scripture says "Holy Spirit" it says it in a general sense and throws ambiguity in the minds of the hearers, who in hearing this very name "Holy Spirit" mentioned might think and say: "What is the precise meaning conveyed by the Scripture, since this name is applied to all the other beings who are called spirits?"—the case would be similar with regard to the name "I am" which Holy Writ applies to God because we would not be able to understand to whom it is precisely ascribed, as there are many beings who are referred to by the word "I am" and it is not known whether man or another being is implied; this general term would, therefore, be in need of an addition through which the one who is called by it is distinguished. |99 We do not, however, understand God in this sense, either when we call Him "I am" or when we call Him "Spirit," because if we call Him "I am" we understand that in truth He is "I am" alone, and if we call Him "Spirit," He is in truth "Spirit" alone.
It is imperative now that we should discuss also the Holy Spirit and see to what kind of "Spirit" (the Book) refers when it says, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." There is no one who is so mad as to believe that this passage requires discussion, because it is known that the Divine Book is wont to refer by this name exclusively to one whom it everywhere names side by side with the Father and the Son, in the same way as it named Him when baptism was handed down to us. While all spirits have by general usage assumed one common name (of spirit) because they are subtile in their nature in comparison with the visible things, which are in no way grasped by any of our visible senses—this name "spirit" is rightly said with pre-eminence of the Divine nature as it is truly a spirit which is incorporeal and uncircumscribed. Thus we have understood Divine nature to be, and the Holy Spirit is called and professed by this name alone side by side with the Father and the Son because He possesses an identical nature with them.
As when we hear the name of the Father, although there are many other fathers, we nevertheless understand it to refer truly to one mighty God who is eternal; and as, although many are called sons, we, nevertheless, think only of one Son, who did not become, neither is He, a Son through the process of transformation—like the sons whom we have with us and who are born through the transformation of the (human) seed and are afterwards called sons—but He is truly alone Son of a Father who is eternal, and He is eternally from Him and with Him—, in this same way when we hear [the name of] the Holy Spirit we do not think of one of those beings who are called spirits but of the one who is truly called alone by this name and is incorporeal, uncircumscribed and confessed side by side with the Father and the Son in one Divine nature.
The addition "Holy" is characterised by the same implications as the name "Spirit." Although there are many beings that are "holy," as in the sentence, "When He shall come in the glory of His Father and of His holy angels," and although there are also |100 many objects called by this name of holiness, such as "The tabernacle of the Most High is holy," these are called holy by common usage only as having derived their holiness from God. The one who is truly holy is Divine nature. It is indeed said: "Thou art holy and Thy name is reverend"; and even the Seraphim when they glorify they say in their canticle which is congruous to this Divine nature as follows: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole heaven and earth are full of His glory."
The one who is truly holy is He whose nature is immutable and unchangeable and He who has not received holiness from another but alone can bestow holiness on all He pleases. In this way the Divine Book calls Holy Spirit the one who is alone confessed, at baptism and in the act of discipleship, side by side with the Father and the Son, because this name Holy Spirit is truly due only to Divine nature. This is the reason why when we hear this name Holy Spirit we do not ask who is meant by it, because we know that He is the one who is alone (holy) by nature and who is named with the Father and the Son as an act due to His nature, because the nature of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one.
From this it is easily understood by men of good will that our blessed Fathers taught us sufficiently concerning the nature of the Holy Spirit when they placed Him on the same level with the Father and the Son, because in this they clearly taught us something that is in harmony with the words which our Lord pronounced to His disciples and which ascribed to Him a name congruous to Divine nature. It was deemed sufficient by them simply to insert this name in the profession of faith which they taught, because by its exclusiveness it is capable of demonstrating the nature of the one who is named.
This being the case it is only men of ill will who make show of insolence and call the Holy Spirit a servant or a creature, while some others amongst them although refraining from these words yet refuse to call Him God. It is with a sense of duty, therefore, that the Doctors of the Church, who assembled from all parts of the world and who were the heirs of the first blessed Fathers, proclaimed before all men the wish of their Fathers and in accurate deliberations made |101 manifest the truth of their faith and interpreted also their mind. They wrote to us words which warn the children of faith and destroy the error of the heretics. As their Fathers did in the profession of faith concerning the Son for the refutation of the ungodliness of Arius, so they did in their words concerning the Holy Spirit for the confutation of those who blasphemed against Him.
They thought that it would be the height of folly to call creature and servant one who by the mention of His name frees us from death and corruption through baptism, and renews us according to the teaching of our Lord, because a creature is not able to free us nor is a servant able to renew us. It was considered by them to be folly to hesitate to call God one who is truly God, as it is clear that one who is neither a creature nor a servant is God. If He be a creature, He is also a servant, and no creature and no servant are truly God. To call creature or servant one by whose name we expect to be renewed and freed—since in calling Him by His name side by side with that of the Father and the Son we believe that He will grant us renewal and freedom—is a great error and an outrageous blasphemy. Duty compels us, therefore, to call Him God because no other nature can create, renew and free except Divine nature, which is neither created nor made, but is the cause of everything, is able to renew its works according to its will and has the power to give us freedom as it wishes.
Because of this and for it, it was right on the part of our blessed Fathers to proclaim in their creed that the Holy Spirit was Divine nature with the Father and the Son, and by the addition of short words to confirm the true doctrine of the Church which was to be made manifest to those who draw nigh unto the holy baptism: And in ONE Holy Spirit. What our Fathers wrote does not differ in meaning from: And in Holy Spirit. Although they made use of this word, well knowing that the Holy Spirit that was called by this name was one as the Divine Books had taught us, they nevertheless made its meaning clear by saying: And in one Holy Spirit, and thus brought themselves into harmony with the usage adopted by Holy Writ which in saying "one" Father and "one" Son says also "one" Holy Spirit. |102
This is the reason why the blessed Paul said in one passage: "By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body." And in another passage: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one body, one Spirit, one God Father of all, who is above all and through all and in us all." And again: "There are diversities of gifts but the Spirit is one, and there are diversities of administration but the Lord is one, and there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all." He clearly shows here that as there is one Lord, because He is the Lord and there is no other beside Him, and as there is one God and there is no other beside Him, so there is one Spirit and there is no other beside Him. The created beings are numerous and different in their nature, but there is only one immutable nature which is the cause of everything, and outside this nature there is no uncreated being who is the cause of the created beings, and He who is of that nature is truly uncreated and cause of everything.
This is the reason why there is only one Father who is truly Father alone and Divine nature, and there is only one Son who is truly Son alone from the Divine nature of God, and there is only one Holy Spirit who is Holy Spirit alone and whom we have learnt from the sacred Books to call by this name, because He also is from that eternal nature and is God and cause of everything. He is also truly God and Lord alone because He created everything, and has power over everything, and is called and is truly Spirit because He is truly incorporeal and uncircumscribed, and to Him is due the attribute of holiness, as He is alone holy and immutable by nature, and as it is He who bestows holiness upon those He pleases and frees them from inclination towards evil.
All the created beings are not holy by nature but are receivers of holiness from the one who is the cause of their being. It is with justice, therefore, that when the blessed Paul exhorted the Ephesians to unity and to be of one mind, made mention of this nature by which they were to be of one mind: "Endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," and as you were born of one Spirit in order to be one in your motherly bond so you ought to be united and |103 joined one to another. In amplifying his sentence he said: "one body and one Spirit even as ye are called in one hope of your calling," because as you were born of one spirit you have become one body of Christ who is the head: the man who was assumed so that through Him we might have relationship with Divine nature, as we are expecting to have communion with Him in the next world, because we believe that our vile body shall be changed and fashioned like unto His glorious body. We have been called to the hope of these (benefits), and we were born of baptism by the power of the Holy Spirit; and as a symbol and earnest of the future things we received the firstfruits of the Spirit, through whom we were reborn and by whom we obtained the gift of being one body of Christ.
In expanding further his sentence the blessed Paul said: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one body, one Spirit, and one God the Father who is above all and through all and in us all." One is the Spirit of whom you were born, in the same way as one is the Lord and one is God whom we believe to be our Lord and our Maker and whom by the grace of baptism we have been worthy to call Father. One faith and one baptism: because although we say Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we only profess one nature of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in which we are initiated to our faith and which we have agreed to name at baptism. It is evident that he would not have said one faith if he did not know that the names of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit through whom disciple-ship is effected were one nature; nor would he have said one baptism had he not been aware that those names which are pronounced at baptism had only one power, one will and one act through which the grace of our second birth was accomplished.
The addition of the word one has, therefore, taught us sufficiently and accurately the Divine nature of the Holy Spirit. He is one as the Father is one and as the Son is one, and we believe that the (nature) of each one of them is identical, because the Divine nature, which is uncreated, eternal, and cause of everything, is one. It is known that the created beings are numerous and possess various and |104 different natures according to the wish of their Maker, and are bound to be always dependent on that nature which is uncreated and the cause of everything.
Things that have now been spoken will suffice us for to-day, and we will leave off the rest for another day if God wishes. Let us, therefore, put an end here to our discourse and praise God the Father, the Only Begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit, now, always, and for ever and ever. Amen. Amen.
Here ends the ninth chapter.