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| That the Holy Spirit is in every conception separable from the Father and the Son, alike in the creation of perceptible objects, in the dispensation of human affairs, and in the judgment to come.
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Chapter XVI.
That the Holy Spirit is in every conception separable
from the Father and the Son, alike in the creation of perceptible
objects, in the dispensation of human affairs, and in the judgment to
come.
37. Let us then
revert to the point raised from the outset, that in all things the Holy
Spirit is inseparable and wholly incapable of being parted from the
Father and the Son. St. Paul, in the passage about the gift of
tongues, writes to the Corinthians, “If ye all prophesy and there
come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of
all, he is judged of all; and thus are the secrets of the heart made
manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God and
report that God is in you of a truth.”1030
If then God is known to be in the
prophets by the prophesying that is acting according to the
distribution of the gifts of the Spirit, let our adversaries consider
what kind of place they will attribute to the Holy Spirit. Let
them say whether it is more proper to rank Him with God or to thrust
Him forth to the place of the creature. Peter’s words to
Sapphira, “How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the
Spirit of the Lord? Ye have not lied unto men, but unto
God,”1031
| 1031
Acts v. 9 and 4. “Thou hast not
lied,” said to Ananias, interpolated into the rebuke of
Sapphira. | show that sins
against the Holy Spirit and against God are the same; and thus you
might learn that in every operation the Spirit is closely conjoined
with, and inseparable from, the Father and the Son. God works the
differences of operations, and the Lord the diversities of
administrations, but all the while the Holy Spirit is present too of
His own will, dispensing distribution of the gifts according to each
recipient’s worth. For, it is said, “there are
diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and differences of
administrations, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of
operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in
all.”1032
“But
all these,” it is said, “worketh that one and the self-same
Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will.”1033
It must not however be supposed
because in this passage the apostle names in the first place the
Spirit, in the second the Son, and in the third God the Father, that
therefore their rank is reversed. The apostle has only started in
accordance with our habits of thought; for when we receive gifts, the
first that occurs to us is the distributer, next we think of the
sender, and then we lift our thoughts to the fountain and cause of the
boons.
38. Moreover, from the things created at the
beginning may be learnt the fellowship of the Spirit with the Father
and the Son. The pure, intelligent, and supermundane powers are
and are styled holy, because they have their holiness of the grace
given by the Holy Spirit. Accordingly the mode of the creation of
the heavenly powers is passed over in Silence, for the historian of the
cosmogony has revealed to us only the creation of things perceptible by
sense. But do thou, who hast power from the things that are seen
to form an analogy of the unseen, glorify the Maker by whom all things
were made, visible and invisible, principalities and powers,
authorities, thrones, and dominions, and all other reasonable natures
whom we cannot name.1034
And in the
creation bethink thee first, I pray thee, of the original cause of all
things that are made, the Father; of the creative cause, the Son; of
the perfecting cause, the Spirit; so that the ministering spirits
subsist by the will of the Father, are brought into being by the
operation of the Son, and perfected by the presence of the
Spirit. Moreover, the perfection of angels is sanctification and
continuance in it. And let no one imagine me either to affirm
that there are three original hypostases1035
| 1035 ὑποστάσεις,
apparently used here as the equivalent of οὐσίαι, unless the
negation only extends to ἀρχικάς.
cf. note on p. 5. | or
to allege the operation of the Son to be imperfect. For the first
principle of existing things is One, creating through the Son and
perfecting through the Spirit.1036
| 1036 Contrast the
neuter τὸ
ὄν of Pagan philosophy with the ὁ ὤν or ἐγώ
εἰμι of Christian revelation. | The
operation of the Father who worketh all in all is not imperfect,
neither is the creating work of the Son incomplete if not perfected
by the Spirit. The Father, who creates by His sole will, could
not stand in any need of the Son, but nevertheless He wills through
the Son; nor could the Son, who works according to the likeness of
the Father, need co-operation, but the Son too wills to make perfect
through the Spirit. “For by the word of the Lord were
the heavens made,
and all the host of them by the breath [the Spirit] of His
mouth.”1037
The Word
then is not a mere significant impression on the air, borne by the
organs of speech; nor is the Spirit of His mouth a vapour, emitted
by the organs of respiration; but the Word is He who “was with
God in the beginning” and “was God,”1038
and the Spirit of the mouth of God is
“the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the
Father.”1039
You are
therefore to perceive three, the Lord who gives the order, the Word
who creates, and the Spirit who confirms.1040
| 1040 τὸν
στερεοῦντα
τὸ πνεῦμα. It
is to be noticed here that St. Basil uses the masculine and more
personal form in apposition with the neuter πνεῦμα, and not
the neuter as in the creed of Constantinople, τὸ κύριον
καὶ τὸ
Ζωοποιὸν τὸ
ἐκ τοῦ
πατρὸς
ἐκπορευόμενον,
etc. There is scriptural authority for the masculine in the
“ὅταν δὲ
ἔλθῃ
ἐκεῖνος, τὸ
πνεῦμα τῆς
ἀληθείας”
of John xvi.
13.
cf. p. 15–17. | And what other thing could
confirmation be than the perfecting according to holiness?
This perfecting expresses the confirmation’s firmness,
unchangeableness, and fixity in good. But there is no
sanctification without the Spirit. The powers of the heavens
are not holy by nature; were it so there would in this respect be no
difference between them and the Holy Spirit. It is in
proportion to their relative excellence that they have their meed of
holiness from the Spirit. The branding-iron is conceived of
together with the fire; and yet the material and the fire are
distinct. Thus too in the case of the heavenly powers; their
substance is, peradventure, an aerial spirit, or an immaterial fire,
as it is written, “Who maketh his angels spirits and his
ministers a flame of fire;”1041
wherefore
they exist in space and become visible, and appear in their proper
bodily form to them that are worthy. But their sanctification,
being external to their substance, superinduces their perfection
through the communion of the Spirit. They keep their rank by
their abiding in the good and true, and while they retain their
freedom of will, never fall away from their patient attendance on
Him who is truly good. It results that, if by your argument
you do away with the Spirit, the hosts of the angels are disbanded,
the dominions of archangels are destroyed, all is thrown into
confusion, and their life loses law, order, and distinctness.
For how are angels to cry “Glory to God in the
highest”1042
without being
empowered by the Spirit? For “No man can say that Jesus
is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost, and no man speaking by the Spirit
of God calleth Jesus accursed;”1043
as might be said by wicked and hostile spirits, whose fall
establishes our statement of the freedom of the will of the
invisible powers; being, as they are, in a condition of equipoise
between virtue and vice, and on this account needing the succour of
the Spirit. I indeed maintain that even Gabriel1044
in no other way foretells events to come
than by the foreknowledge of the Spirit, by reason of the fact that
one of the boons distributed by the Spirit is prophecy. And
whence did he who was ordained to announce the mysteries of the
vision to the Man of Desires1045
derive the
wisdom whereby he was enabled to teach hidden things, if not from
the Holy Spirit? The revelation of mysteries is indeed the
peculiar function of the Spirit, as it is written, “God hath
revealed them unto us by His Spirit.”1046
And how could “thrones,
dominions, principalities and powers”1047
live their blessed life, did they not “behold the face of the
Father which is in heaven”?1048
But
to behold it is impossible without the Spirit! Just as at
night, if you withdraw the light from the house, the eyes fall blind
and their faculties become inactive, and the worth of objects cannot
be discerned, and gold is trodden on in ignorance as though it were
iron, so in the order of the intellectual world it is impossible for
the high life of Law to abide without the Spirit. For it so to
abide were as likely as that an army should maintain its discipline
in the absence of its commander, or a chorus its harmony without the
guidance of the Coryphæus. How could the Seraphim cry
“Holy, Holy, Holy,”1049
were they
not taught by the Spirit how often true religion requires them to
lift their voice in this ascription of glory? Do “all
His angels” and “all His hosts”1050
praise God? It is through the
co-operation of the Spirit. Do “thousand thousand”
of angels stand before Him, and “ten thousand times ten
thousand” ministering spirits?1051
They are blamelessly doing their
proper work by the power of the Spirit. All the glorious and
unspeakable harmony1052
| 1052 cf.
Job xxxviii.
7, though for first
clause the lxx. reads ὅτε
ἐγενήθη
ἄστρα. On the
Pythagorean theory of the harmony of the spheres vide
Arist. De Cœl. ii. 9, 1. | of the highest
heavens both in the service of God, and in the mutual concord of the
celestial powers, can therefore only be preserved by the direction
of the Spirit. Thus with those beings who are not gradually
perfected by increase and advance,1053
but are perfect from the moment of the creation, there is in
creation the presence of the Holy Spirit, who confers on them the
grace that flows from Him for the completion and perfection of their
essence.1054
| 1054 ὑπόστασις,
apparently again used in its earlier identification with
οὐσία. |
39. But when we speak of the dispensations
made for man by our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ,1055
| 1055
Titus ii. 13, R.V. The A.V. favours
the view, opposed to that of the Greek Fathers, that “the
great God” means the Father. cf. Theodoret in
this edition, pp. 319 and 321 and notes. | who will gainsay their having been
accomplished through the grace of the Spirit? Whether you wish to
examine ancient evidence;—the blessings of the patriarchs, the
succour given through the legislation, the types, the prophecies, the
valorous feats in war, the signs wrought through just men;—or on
the other hand the things done in the dispensation of the coming of our
Lord in the flesh;—all is through the Spirit. In the first
place He was made an unction, and being inseparably present was with
the very flesh of the Lord, according to that which is written,
“Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on
Him, the same is”1056
“my beloved
Son;”1057
and “Jesus of
Nazareth” whom “God anointed with the Holy
Ghost.”1058
After this
every operation was wrought with the co-operation of the Spirit.
He was present when the Lord was being tempted by the devil; for, it is
said, “Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be
tempted.”1059
He was
inseparably with Him while working His wonderful works;1060
| 1060 δυνάμεις,
rendered “wonderful works” in Matt. vii. 22; “mighty works” in
Matt. xi. 20, Mark vi. 14, and Luke x.
13; and
“miracles” in Acts ii. 22, xix. 11,
and Gal. iii. 5. | for, it is said, “If I by the Spirit
of God cast out devils.”1061
And
He did not leave Him when He had risen from the dead; for when
renewing man, and, by breathing on the face of the
disciples,1062
| 1062
Gen. ii. 7, lxx. is ἐνεφύσησεν
εἰς τὸ
πρόσωπον
αὐτοῦ. “εἰς τὸ
πρόσωπον”
is thence imported into John xx. 22. Mr. C.F.H. Johnston notes,
“This addition…is found in the Prayer at the Little
Entrance in the Liturgy of St. Mark. Didymus, in his
treatise on the Holy Spirit, which we have only in St.
Jerome’s Latin Version, twice used ‘insufflans in
faciem corum,” §§6, 33. The text is
quoted in this form by Epiphanius Adv. Hær. lxxiv.
13, and by St. Aug. De Trin. iv. 20.” To
these instances may be added Athan. Ep. i. § 8, and
the versions of Upper and Lower Egypt, the Thebaic, known as the
Sahidic, and the Memphitic, or Coptic, both ascribed to the 3rd
century. | restoring the
grace, that came of the inbreathing of God, which man had lost, what
did the Lord say? “Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose
soever ye retain, they are retained.”1063
And is it not plain and
incontestable that the ordering of the Church is effected through
the Spirit? For He gave, it is said, “in the church,
first Apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that
miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of
tongues,”1064
for this order
is ordained in accordance with the division of the gifts that are of
the Spirit.1065
40. Moreover by any one who carefully uses
his reason it will be found that even at the moment of the expected
appearance of the Lord from heaven the Holy Spirit will not, as some
suppose, have no functions to discharge: on the contrary, even in
the day of His revelation, in which the blessed and only
potentate1066
will judge the
world in righteousness,1067
the Holy Spirit
will be present with Him. For who is so ignorant of the good
things prepared by God for them that are worthy, as not to know that
the crown of the righteous is the grace of the Spirit, bestowed in more
abundant and perfect measure in that day, when spiritual glory shall be
distributed to each in proportion as he shall have nobly played the
man? For among the glories of the saints are “many
mansions” in the Father’s house,1068
| 1068 παρὰ τῷ
πατρί, (=chez le
Père,) with little or no change of meaning, for
ἐν τῇ οἰκί& 139·
τοῦ πατρός
μου. John xiv. 2. |
that is differences of dignities: for as “star differeth
from star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the
dead.”1069
They, then,
that were sealed by the Spirit unto the day of redemption,1070
and preserve pure and undiminished the first
fruits which they received of the Spirit, are they that shall hear the
words “well done thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been
faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many
things.”1071
In like
manner they which have grieved the Holy Spirit by the wickedness of
their ways, or have not wrought for Him that gave to them, shall be
deprived of what they have received, their grace being transferred to
others; or, according to one of the evangelists, they shall even be
wholly cut asunder,1072
—the cutting
asunder meaning complete separation from the Spirit. The body is
not divided, part being delivered to chastisement, and part let off;
for when a whole has sinned it were like the old fables, and unworthy
of a righteous judge, for only the half to suffer chastisement.
Nor is the soul cut in two,—that soul the whole of which
possesses the sinful affection throughout, and works the wickedness in
co-operation with the body. The cutting asunder, as I have
observed, is the separation for aye of the soul from the Spirit.
For now, although the Spirit does not suffer admixture with the
unworthy, He nevertheless does seem in a manner to be
present with them that have once been sealed, awaiting the salvation
which follows on their conversion; but then He will be wholly cut off
from the soul that has defiled His grace. For this reason
“In Hell there is none that maketh confession; in death none that
remembereth God,”1073
| 1073
Ps. vi. 5, lxx. ὅτι
οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν
τῷ θανάτῳ ὁ
μνημονεύων
σου, ἐν δὲ τῷ
ἅδῃ τίς
ἐξομολογήσεται
σοι; Vulg. “In inferno autem quis
confitebitur tibi?” | because the succour
of the Spirit is no longer present. How then is it possible to
conceive that the judgment is accomplished without the Holy Spirit,
wherein the word points out that He is Himself the prize1074
of the righteous, when instead of the
earnest1075
is given that which
is perfect, and the first condemnation of sinners, when they are
deprived of that which they seem to have? But the greatest proof
of the conjunction of the Spirit with the Father and the Son is that He
is said to have the same relation to God which the spirit in us has to
each of us. “For what man” it is said, “knoweth
the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so
the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of
God.”1076
On this point I have said enough. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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