On the Holy Spirit 15.34–17.43

What further do they say to this? For they are well supplied with many rebuttals. "We are also baptised into water," they say, "and surely we shall not honour water above the whole creation, or give it a share in the honour of the Father and the Son." Their arguments are such as might come from angry men who, because their reasoning is darkened by passion, spare nothing in retaliating against the one who has vexed them. But we will not shrink from discussing these things either. For we will either teach them, if they are ignorant, or not give way to them, if they are acting in bad faith. But let us begin a little further back.

The economy of our God and Saviour concerning man is a recall from the fall and a return to intimacy with God from the estrangement brought about by disobedience. For this reason came Christ's sojourn in the flesh, the patterns of the gospel way of life, the sufferings, the cross, the burial, the resurrection: so that man, being saved through imitation of Christ, might receive back that ancient adoption. For perfection of life, then, the imitation of Christ is necessary—not only in the examples of gentleness, humility, and patience that his life gave, but also of his very death, as Paul, the imitator of Christ, says: "being conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." How, then, do we come to be in the likeness of his death? By being buried with him through baptism. What, then, is the manner of the burial, and what benefit comes from the imitation? First, it is necessary that the continuity of the former life be broken off. This is impossible unless one is born from above, according to the Lord's word. For regeneration, as the very name shows, is the beginning of a second life. So before beginning the second, one must put an end to the one before. For as with runners who turn in the double course a kind of halt and pause separates the opposite movements, so in the change of lives it was seen to be necessary that a death should stand between the two lives, ending what went before and giving a beginning to what follows. How, then, do we accomplish the descent into Hades? By imitating the burial of Christ through baptism. For the bodies of the baptised are, as it were, buried in the water. So baptism symbolically indicates the putting off of the works of the flesh, as the Apostle says: "You were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism." And it is, as it were, a cleansing of the soul from the filth that has come upon it from the mind of the flesh, as it is written: "You will wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." For this reason we do not wash ourselves, as the Jews do, at each defilement, but we know one saving baptism, since there is one death on behalf of the world and one resurrection from the dead, of which baptism is a type. For this reason the Lord who orders our life established for us the covenant of baptism, containing a type of death and of life: the water fulfils the image of death, and the Spirit supplies the pledge of life. So it has become clear to us from this what was being asked: why the water was joined with the Spirit. It is because two aims are set before us in baptism: to abolish the body of sin, so that it no longer bears fruit for death, and to live by the Spirit and have our fruit in sanctification. The water presents the image of death, receiving the body as in a tomb; the Spirit sends in the life-giving power, renewing our souls from the deadness of sin to the life that was from the beginning. This, then, is to be born from above of water and Spirit: the dying is accomplished in the water, while our life is worked through the Spirit. In three immersions, then, and with an equal number of invocations, the great mystery of baptism is accomplished, so that the type of death may be represented, and the baptised may have their souls enlightened by the handing on of the knowledge of God. So if there is any grace in the water, it is not from the nature of the water but from the presence of the Spirit. For baptism is "not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the appeal of a good conscience to God." So, preparing us for the life that comes from the resurrection, the Lord sets out the whole gospel way of life, laying down freedom from anger, patient endurance of wrong, purity from the love of pleasure, and freedom from the love of money, so that what that age possesses by nature we may achieve beforehand by choice. If, then, someone …

Through the Holy Spirit comes the restoration to paradise, the ascent to the kingdom of heaven, the return to adoption; the boldness to call God our own Father, to become a sharer in the grace of Christ, to be called a child of light, to share in eternal glory, and, in a word, to be in all fullness of blessing, both in this age and in the one to come—beholding as in a mirror, as though already present, the grace of the good things stored up for us in promises, whose enjoyment we await through faith. For if the pledge is such, how great is the perfect whole? And if the first-fruits are so great, what will the fullness of the whole be? The difference between the grace that comes from the Spirit and baptism in water is known also from this: that John baptised in water for repentance, but our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. "I baptise you in water for repentance," he says; "but he who comes after me is mightier than I; I am not worthy to carry his sandals; he will baptise you in the Holy Spirit and fire." By the baptism of fire he means the testing at the judgment, as the Apostle says: "The fire itself will test what sort of work each one has done"; and again, "For the day will disclose it, because it is revealed in fire." And before now some, in the contests for piety, have undergone death for Christ in truth and not in imitation, and have needed none of the symbols of water for their salvation, having been baptised in their own blood. I say this not to set aside baptism in water, but to demolish the reasonings of those who exalt themselves against the Spirit, who mix what cannot be mixed and equate what cannot be compared.

Let us return, then, to our starting point: how in all things the Holy Spirit is inseparable and wholly undivided from the Father and the Son. In the passage about the gift of tongues, Paul writes to the Corinthians: "If all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider comes in, he is convicted by all, he is examined by all, the secrets of his heart become manifest; and so, falling on his face, he will worship God, declaring that God is truly among you." If, then, from the prophecy that is worked according to the distribution of the Spirit's gifts, God is recognised to be in the prophets, let these men consider what place they will give to the Holy Spirit: whether it is more just to rank him with God or to thrust him out among the creation. And Peter's words to Sapphira, "How is it that you have agreed together to test the Holy Spirit? You have not lied to men but to God," show that sins against the Holy Spirit and against God are the same. In this way too you may be taught that the Spirit is joined with the Father and the Son and undivided from them in every working. When God works the distributions of workings, and the Lord the distributions of ministries, the Holy Spirit is present with them, ordering the distribution of the gifts according to each one's worth by his own authority. "For there are distributions of gifts," it says, "but the same Spirit; and distributions of ministries, but the same Lord; and distributions of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all." "All these," it says, "the one and the same Spirit works, distributing to each individually as he wills." Yet because the Apostle here mentions the Spirit first, the Son second, and God the Father third, we must not think that the order has simply been reversed. He began from our relation to them; for when we receive the gifts, we first meet the one who distributes them, then we think of the one who sent him, and then we lift our thought to the source and cause of the good things.

You may learn the Spirit's fellowship with the Father and the Son also from the things created in the beginning. For the pure, intelligent, and supramundane powers both are holy and are called holy, having their sanctification from the grace given by the Holy Spirit. The manner of the creation of the heavenly powers has been passed over in silence, for the writer of the account of the world's origin revealed the Creator to us only through the things of sense. But you, who have the power to infer the invisible from the visible, glorify the Maker in whom all things were created, whether visible or invisible, whether principalities or authorities or powers or thrones or dominions, and whatever other rational natures there may be that have no name. And in their creation, consider, I pray, the principal cause of what was made, the Father; the creative cause, the Son; the perfecting cause, the Spirit: so that the ministering spirits exist by the will of the Father, are brought into being by the working of the Son, and are perfected by the presence of the Spirit. The perfection of angels is sanctification and continuance in it. And let no one think that I am saying there are three original hypostases, or that I call the Son's working incomplete. For the origin of existing things is one, creating through the Son and perfecting in the Spirit. Neither does the Father, who works all things in all, have an incomplete working, nor is the Son's creating deficient if it is not perfected by the Spirit. For on that view the Father would not need the Son, since he creates by willing alone—yet he wills through the Son; nor would the Son need cooperation, since he works in the likeness of the Father—yet the Son too wills to perfect through the Spirit. "For by the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the Spirit of his mouth." The Word, then, is not a significant impression on the air, uttered through the organs of speech; nor is the Spirit of his mouth a vapour expelled from the organs of breathing. Rather, the Word is he who "was with God in the beginning" and "was God," and the Spirit of God's mouth is "the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father." You perceive three, then: the Lord who commands, the Word who creates, the Spirit who establishes. And what else could establishing be but perfection in holiness, since establishing shows what is unyielding, unchangeable, and firmly fixed in the good? And there is no sanctification without the Spirit. For the powers of the heavens are not holy by nature—or else they would not differ at all from the Holy Spirit—but they have the measure of their sanctification from the Spirit in proportion to their rank relative to one another. For as the burning is thought of together with the fire, and yet the underlying matter is one thing and the fire another, so also with the heavenly powers: their essence is, perhaps, an airy spirit or an immaterial fire, as it is written, "Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire"; that is why they are in a place and become visible, appearing to the worthy in the form of their own bodies. But their sanctification, being external to their essence, brings them perfection through communion with the Spirit. They keep their dignity by persevering in the good; they have free choice, but never fall away from their attendance on the truly good. So if in thought you take away the Spirit, the choirs of angels are dissolved, the governance of archangels is abolished, all things are thrown into confusion, and their life becomes lawless, disordered, and without bounds. For how could angels say, "Glory to God in the highest," if not empowered by the Spirit? For "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit, and no one speaking in the Spirit of God says 'Jesus is accursed'"—which the evil and hostile spirits would say. Their fall establishes the point that the invisible powers are free in their choice, evenly balanced between virtue and vice, and therefore in need of the Spirit's help. For my part, I say that even Gabriel foretells the future in no other way than by the foreknowledge of the Spirit, since prophecy is one of the gifts distributed by the Spirit. And the one charged to announce the mysteries of the vision to the man of desires—where did he get the wisdom to teach hidden things, if not from the Holy Spirit? For the revelation of mysteries belongs properly to the Spirit, as it is written: "God has revealed them to us through the Spirit." And thrones and dominions, principalities and powers—how could they live their blessed life unless they always beheld the face of the Father who is in heaven? But there is no beholding without the Spirit. For as at night, if you take the light out of the house, the eyes are blind, the faculties are left inactive, the worth of things goes unrecognised, and gold and iron are trodden underfoot alike through ignorance—so in the intelligible order it is impossible to maintain that lawful life without the Spirit, any more than an army's good order when its commander is absent, or a choir's harmony when its leader does not direct it. How could the seraphim say, "Holy, holy, holy," unless taught by the Spirit how many times it is pious to cry out this doxology? Whether, then, "all his angels praise God, and all his powers praise him," they do it through the cooperation of the Spirit; or whether "a thousand thousands of angels stand by him, and ten thousand myriads of ministering spirits," they fulfil their proper work blamelessly in the power of the Spirit. All that supracelestial and unspeakable harmony, both in the service of God and in the concord of the supramundane powers with one another, cannot be kept except under the governance of the Spirit. So in creation the Holy Spirit is present to beings that are not perfected by progress but are perfect from their very creation, contributing his own grace to the completion and fulfilment of their existence.

As for the economies concerning man, carried out by our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ according to the goodness of God, who will deny that they were accomplished through the grace of the Spirit? Look, if you wish, at the ancient things: the blessings of the patriarchs, the help given through the law, the types, the prophecies, the brave deeds in wars, the signs done through the righteous; or at what was arranged through the Spirit concerning the Lord's coming in the flesh. For first, the Spirit was with the Lord's very flesh, becoming its anointing and present inseparably, as it is written: "On whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is my beloved Son"; and, "Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit." Then every working was done with the Spirit present. He was present even when the Lord was tempted by the devil: "Jesus was led up," it says, "by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted." He was with him inseparably as he worked miracles: "If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons." And he did not leave him when he had risen from the dead. For the Lord, renewing man and giving back the grace that man had lost, which came from God's breathing into him, breathed on the faces of the disciples—and what does he say? "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." And is not the ordering of the church clearly and indisputably worked through the Spirit? "For he gave," it says, "in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then powers, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, kinds of tongues." For this order is arranged according to the distribution of the gifts from the Spirit.

And anyone who reckons carefully will find that even at the time of the Lord's expected appearing from heaven the Holy Spirit will not be inactive, as some think; he will be present also on the day of his revelation, on which "the blessed and only Sovereign" will judge the world in righteousness. For who is so ignorant of the good things prepared by God for the worthy as not to know that the crown of the righteous is also the grace of the Spirit, given then more abundantly and more perfectly, as the spiritual glory is distributed to each in proportion to his brave deeds? For in the splendours of the saints there are "many dwellings" with the Father—that is, differences of rank. "For as star differs from star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead." Those, then, who have been sealed with the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption, and have kept pure and undiminished the first-fruits of the Spirit that they received, are the ones who will hear: "Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will set you over many." Likewise those who have grieved the Holy Spirit by the wickedness of their ways, or have not worked with what was given them, will be deprived of what they received, the grace being transferred to others; or, as one of the evangelists says, they will even be "cut in two" completely—the cutting in two being understood as complete estrangement from the Spirit. For the body is not divided, so that one part is handed over to punishment and the other let go—for that would be like a myth, and not the way of a just judge, that when the whole has sinned the punishment should be by halves. Nor is the soul cut in two, since the whole of it has had the sinful mind and has worked the evil together with the body. But the cutting in two, as I said, is the soul's estrangement from the Spirit for ever. For now, even if he is not mingled with the unworthy, he nevertheless seems in some way to be present to those who have once been sealed, awaiting their salvation through conversion; but then he will be cut off completely from the soul that has profaned his grace. That is why "in Hades there is no one who confesses, nor in death anyone who remembers God," since the help of the Spirit is no longer present. How then can one think that the judgment is carried out without the Holy Spirit, when the word shows that he is himself the prize of the righteous, when in place of the pledge the perfect is given, and that the first condemnation of sinners is when even what they seem to have is taken away? But the greatest proof of the Spirit's conjunction with the Father and the Son is that he is said to be related to God as the spirit in us is related to each of us. "For who among men," it says, "knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? So also no one has known the things of God except the Spirit who is from God." So much, then, for this.

What they mean by "subnumeration," and to what meaning they apply this word, is not even easy to conceive. That it too was brought in upon us from the wisdom of the world is plain to everyone; whether it has any proper bearing on the matter before us, let us examine. These men, clever in vain things, say that some names are common and extend widely in their meanings, while others are more particular, and some have a more partial force than others. For instance, "essence" is a common name, predicated of all things, both lifeless and living alike; "animal" is more particular, said of fewer things than the former but of more than those considered under it, for it contains both rational and irrational natures. Again, "human being" is more particular than "animal," and "man" than "human being," and the individual than "man"—Peter or Paul or John. Do they, then, understand subnumeration as this division of the common into what falls under it? But I could not believe that they have been driven to such madness as to say that the God of all, like some common quality, perceptible only by reason and having its being in no hypostasis, is divided into subjects, and then to call this subdivision "subnumeration." Surely not even the melancholy-mad would say this. For besides the impiety, they establish the argument opposite to their own purpose; for things subdivided are of the same essence as that from which they are divided. But because the absurdity is so evident we seem to be at a loss for words, not knowing how to lay hold of their unreason; so that they seem to me to gain something from their folly. For as against soft and yielding bodies, which offer no resistance, one cannot deliver a vigorous blow, so neither can one come to grips with a vigorous refutation of those plainly given over to folly. It remains, then, to pass over in silence the abomination of their impiety. But love for the brothers, and the weight of the opponents' attack, do not allow us to keep quiet.

For what do they say? See the words of their arrogance: "We say that conumeration befits things of equal honour, and subnumeration things that differ for the worse." And what ever do you mean by this? I do not understand your strange wisdom. Is it that gold is numbered with gold, while lead is no longer worthy to be numbered with it, but because of the cheapness of its material will be numbered under gold? And do you ascribe so much power to number that it either raises the worth of cheap things or casts down the dignity of precious ones? Then again you will number gold under precious stones, and among these the dimmer and smaller under the more brilliant and larger. But what would they not say, those who have leisure for nothing else but to say or hear something newer? Let these arbiters of impiety henceforth be named together with the Stoics and Epicureans. For what subnumeration could there be of less valuable things under precious ones? How will a copper obol be numbered under a gold stater? "Because," he says, "we do not say that we possess two coins, but one and one." Which of these, then, is numbered under which? For each is named alike. If you count each by itself, you make them equal in honour by the like manner of counting; if you join them, you again unite their worth by counting both together. But if whatever is counted second is to be "subnumbered," it is up to the one counting to begin the count with the copper coin. But let us put off refuting their ignorance and turn to the main points of the argument.

[…] the present purpose, since their impiety has been refuted by us, as far as we were able, both there and elsewhere. But if they think that subnumeration befits the Spirit alone, let them learn that the Spirit is named together with the Lord in the same way as the Son with the Father. For the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit has been handed down alike. As, then, the Son is to the Father, so the Spirit is to the Son, according to the order of words handed down in baptism. And if the Spirit is ranked with the Son, and the Son with the Father, clearly the Spirit is also ranked with the Father. What room is there, then, to say that one is numbered with and another numbered under, when they are set in one and the same series? And in general, what thing has ever departed from its own nature by being counted? Do not things counted remain what they were by nature from the beginning, while number is applied by us as a sign indicating how many the subjects are? For of bodies we count some, measure others, and weigh others: those whose nature is continuous we grasp by measure; those that are discrete we subject to number—except those that, because of their fineness, become measurable in their turn—and weights we distinguish by the inclinations of the balance. It does not follow, then, that because we have devised signs for ourselves to know quantity, we have changed the nature of the things signified. So, as we do not "weigh under" one another things that are weighed, even if one is gold and the other tin, nor "measure under" things that are measured, so neither shall we "number under" things that are counted. And if nothing else admits subnumeration, how do they say that it befits the Spirit to be numbered under? But, sick with Greek notions, they think that things which descend by grades of dignity or by a lowering of essence are what should be numbered under.