Testimonia e scriptura

OF OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS ATHANASIUS Testimonies from the Scripture, concerning the natural communion, from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit being alike, which is difficult to attain to in contemplation, and their having one energy. Concerning freedom. Concerning the Father, it is beyond doubt. Concerning the Son, the voice of the Son himself: "If the Son does not set you free, you are slaves." Concerning the Spirit, through Paul he speaks thus: "When one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Concerning giving life. The Savior says: "Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he wills;" and concerning the Spirit he says: "It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing." And the Apostle: "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." Concerning ordination. Concerning the Father Paul says: "God placed in the Church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers;" and the rest. Concerning the Son the same Apostle declares: "He who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he himself gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as pastors and teachers." Concerning the Spirit, the same man summons the elders from Miletus and says to them: "Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers, to shepherd the Church of God." Concerning legislation. Concerning the Father David says: "To do your will, my God, I have desired, and your law is in the midst of my belly." Concerning the Son, Paul—

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. The same writer, concerning the Spirit: The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free. Concerning lordship. David says: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand. But if the heretics object, saying that this is to be understood of David, the saying of the Savior refutes them: What do you say concerning the Christ? Whose son is he? They say: Of David. The Savior answers: How then does David in the Holy Spirit call him Lord? Again, concerning the Father: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. And concerning the Son, he says: And the Lord shall cry out from Zion, and shall give his voice from heaven, and the heaven and the earth shall be shaken. And the Lord shall spare his people, and the Lord shall strengthen the sons of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, in the holy mountain. And he who dwells there, that is, the Son, says: But I have been established as king by him upon Zion, his holy mountain, and the rest. And concerning the Spirit, having said, The Lord said to my Lord, he continues below: And the Lord at your right hand; so the Spirit is again at the right hand of the Son. That the Father calls the Son Lord, and the Apostle calls the Spirit both Lord and God, as also the Son. For he says thus: And it shall come to pass after these things: I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.

And indeed on my servants, and on my maidservants in those days, I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh, and they shall prophesy, and I will give wonders in the heaven above, and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and manifest day of the Lord comes. And it shall be, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? How shall they hear without one preaching? And concerning the Spirit, the same Apostle says: Whenever he turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away; and the Lord is the Spirit. And again the same: Even as from the Lord the Spirit; and again: And may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patience of Christ; so then the Lord is the Spirit. And again: But may the Lord make you increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all, even as we do toward you, to establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. And here the Lord who increases and abounds in love toward one another, and establishes the hearts in holiness before God at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the Spirit. Having therefore gathered the three lordships into one lordship, he confirms it, saying to the Ephesians:

One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” Again the Spirit is clearly called Lord in the book of Judges, when Samson performed his feats of valor; the Scripture indicates this and says: “And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, and he took the jawbone of a donkey and killed a thousand”; and again: “The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, and he tore the lion apart like a kid”; and again: “The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, and he took up the gate of Gaza and carried it up to the mountain. And in every way the Spirit of the Lord goes forth.” But when he was shorn, revealing the mysteries of God to Delilah, he says: “And the Lord departed from Samson.” So then it has been made clear that the Spirit is Lord; and if Lord, then everywhere also God; for “Know,” it says, “that the Lord himself is God.” And, “When the sons of Gad built an altar on the Jordan, and the sons of Israel sent to them, saying: Why have you become apostates from God? the sons of Reuben answered, defending themselves to the commanders of thousands of Israel, saying: God, God is Lord; and God the Lord himself knows,” and the rest. And elsewhere again Paul: “God, who said, ‘Out of darkness let light shine,’ who shone in our hearts, for the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ.” Therefore God, who said, “Out of darkness let light shine,” is the Spirit. And again the same: “Now may the God of patience and consolation grant you to be of the same mind according to Christ Jesus;

so that with one mind and one mouth we may glorify God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who, then, is the God of patience and consolation, who gives us to be of the same mind according to Christ Jesus, so that with one mind we may glorify God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Altogether the Holy Spirit. And again: “But if all prophesy, and some unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all; and thus the hidden things of his heart become manifest; and thus, falling on his face, he will worship God, declaring that God is truly among you.” So he called the Holy Spirit God, who speaks in them. And again: “Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?” He showed that we are a temple of God; and where a temple is, there God is; and the Spirit dwells there, as in his own temple. For he says: “Do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? Glorify therefore God who dwells in you.” But if you do not glorify the one who dwells in you as God, you have become a temple of idols. For he says: “Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?” And elsewhere he says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me; they tried me, and saw my works for forty years.” And the Holy Spirit is said to have spoken these things; for the Apostle says: “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear his voice,” and the rest.

Therefore Israel tempted the Holy Spirit and tested him in the wilderness, and they saw his works, that is, his wonders. And in another psalm the same one says: "And they tempted God in a waterless place." Therefore God is the Holy Spirit. And elsewhere, when Elijah was being taken up, Elisha asked of him that the Spirit be upon him double. Elijah therefore promised it, if he should see him being taken up. Having seen it, then, and having taken the mantle, he came to the Jordan; and when he struck the river with the mantle, the water did not obey. He says therefore: Where is the God of Aphpho? And Aphpho is interpreted "both," that is, the double Spirit. Where therefore is the God of both, instead of, the double Spirit. And again the Savior says: "He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, rivers from his belly shall flow of living water." And interpreting what this is, "of living water," the evangelist said: "But this he spoke concerning the Holy Spirit, whom those who believe in him were about to receive." But if the living water is the Holy Spirit, then God is the Holy Spirit; for the prophet says: "They abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug for themselves broken cisterns, which will not be able to hold water." And David: "For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we shall see light." You see that the Father was called a fountain, and the Son likewise, and the Holy Spirit, not that there are three gods; for there is one God, and one law, one lawgiver, and one Lord.

For it is proclaimed that there is one God in three persons. And how, he says, can the Father be called God, and the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God, and yet they are not three gods? Since the things of the nature are common, the name of the dignity is also common; for example, God calls the things divided into multitudes from one nature by one name; and when he is angry with men, he calls the whole man subject to wrath one man; and when he is reconciled to the world, he is reconciled as to one man; for example, he brings a flood because of sin, and God says: "My Spirit shall not remain in these men, and I will blot out the man whom I made." And yet there was not one, but countless myriads; but by the name of the nature he called the whole man one man because of the commonality of substance. And again David says: "What is man, that you remember him, or the son of man, that you visit him?" Not that he visited one man; for he raised up the whole inhabited world. And we shall use one brief saying spoken through Moses: When Pharaoh went out against the sea, and threatened punishment to the divine law, falling with ten thousand chariots in the sea, and there were many men who were drowned with him, and many horses; but Moses, knowing that there is one nature of all who were drowned, speaks concerning both the horses and the men: "Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously glorified; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea;" the multitudes of horses he called one horse because of the communion of nature, and the multitudes of men

He called one man; for he spoke of a horse and a rider because of the commonality of nature. If, then, among men, where the things of nature are confounded, where the things of form and power and will are different—for there is neither equal judgment, nor form, nor strength, and the tongues are different; therefore men are called articulate—but because of the commonality of nature the whole inhabited world was called one man. But where the worth is indivisible, one kingdom, one power, and will, and activity, distinguishing the Trinity from creation, I say one God. But if, because I say God, and God, and God, I say three gods; and if I say Lord, and Lord, and Lord, I say three Lords; if, therefore, the Father is Lord, and the Son is Lord, and the Holy Spirit is Lord, how do you, O Apostle, the lawgiver of truth, the advocate of piety, cry out to the Ephesians, saying: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism"? One Lord according to the sanctification of the seraphim; for those also cried: "Holy, holy, holy Lord." But if the heretics contend and say that the lordship of the Father is one thing and that of the Son another, I marvel how they endure to serve two lords; for it is the voice of the Lord: "No one can serve two lords." If the lordship of the Father is one thing and the lordship of the Son another, and you divide the authority, how do you serve the kingdom? Two dignities cannot be served according to him unless they are of equal honor. No one worships a king and a ruler; for where the worth is of equal honor, the worship is also of equal honor. In equal worth there is no strife. Inequality stirs up strife.

But equality awards peace. Christ did not permit you to divide the honor, saying: "This is the will of my Father, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father." Honor the Father, that you may honor the Son; or rather, honor the Son, that you may honor the Father. God appropriates to himself the insult done to the Son; for the Savior says: "He who hates me hates my Father also." Let not the heretics think that they will gratify God by calling him greater than his Son. The Father does not accept the honor done to himself when his Son is insulted. And see the clear proof of this from the old Scripture. The friends of Job, who came to comfort him, accused him of speaking bold things, and they justified God. Job said to God: "Who will give a judge between me and you, that I may see how many my sins are, that you have judged me thus?" The friends of Job justified God, although the case was unknown; and they condemned the righteous man rather as having sinned, and they praised God as bringing things upon him justly; and they say to Job: "You have spoken greatly, you have been exceedingly bold, you who have spoken against the Sufficient One"; and, "God does not disturb the righteous." And again his friend says: "According to your sins he has brought this upon you. But if your sins were not many, he would not have scourged you." And they seemed to plead God's cause, but to condemn the righteous man. Did God, then, accept those who spoke on his behalf contrary to justice? Did he accept the advocacy on his behalf, and dishonor the righteous man? By no means. Therefore he does not accept the honor done to himself when the Son is dishonored.

Let us see what he says to Job's friends: "Why did you not speak rightly concerning my servant?" If, then, he rejects those who do not speak rightly against his servant, will he receive those who sharpen their tongue against the Only-Begotten? By no means. Inescapable, therefore, is the judgment for those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit; for hear what the Savior says: "Every blasphemy will be forgiven; but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven." That the Trinity sends apostles. Concerning the Father he says: "For on Mount Zion he will come, the one bringing good news, and those bringing good news, whom the Lord has summoned." Concerning the Son: "Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves." Concerning the Spirit he says in the Acts: "Those, then, who were sent by the Holy Spirit came to Seleucia." If, then, it belongs to God to summon, why does the Spirit say through the prophets: "Thus says the Lord"? And again the Spirit to the saints in Antioch: "Set apart for me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have summoned them"? Learn, then, the power of the Trinity. The Father legislates; the Son commands; the Spirit exercises authority. Hear God saying: "Those bringing good news will come, whom the Lord has summoned." That the holy Trinity is shown to sit upon a high throne. Isaiah says: "I saw the Lord Sabaoth sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the seraphim stood round about him," and the rest. It necessarily follows that the Father is understood before all. Then, descending in order, he says: "And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send? And who will go to this people? And I said:

Behold, I, send me. And he said to me: Go to this people, and say to them: Hearing you shall hear, and you shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and you shall not perceive; for the heart of this people has grown dull, and so on. But John applies these things to the Son; for he says: "Though he had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: 'Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' These things Isaiah said when he saw his glory." But Paul, speaking about the Spirit to the Jews in Rome, said: "Well did the Holy Spirit speak through Isaiah the prophet: Hearing you shall hear, and you shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and you shall not perceive," and so on. Concerning the Spirit's sitting. From the book of Moses the Holy Spirit is shown not only sitting but sitting together with the Father and the Son. From the fitting history, then. I have set out for Abraham: "God appeared to Abraham, and behold, three men, whom he also entertained beneath the oak, who rose up, looking toward the face of Sodom." But "they rose up" is a signification of those who were sitting. Tell me, then, at the table did the three sit, or not? He says, They sat. Therefore to sit at the same place is to sit together. And in Daniel, when Susanna was being led away to be put to death, the Scripture says: "God stirred up the Holy Spirit of a young boy whose name was Daniel." The word "stirring up," then, is not understood of one standing, but of one sitting or sleeping; as also in the psalm it says:

The Lord arose as one who sleeps, as a mighty man and one overcome with wine;" and, "The Lord arose from his holy clouds." And I will mention another account of the Father of the Lord, saying to John: "On whomever you see the Spirit descending, and remaining upon him." The Lord said: "Even if the Father, who remains in me, he himself does the works." Say then according to the testimonies: do the Father and the Spirit remain in the Son, or not? He says: They remain. Therefore, since the Father and the Spirit remain in the Son, when the Son sits down, it is entirely necessary that those who remain in him sit down with him; as therefore he sits, they also sit with him. If then this is the account concerning Abraham and Lot, and it is written in the Acts of the apostles: "And the Holy Spirit sat upon each one of them;" as also in the psalm it says: "He who sits upon the cherubim;" we know that a distinct and separate dwelling place at the right hand of the Father has been assigned to the Son. At any rate, when the three sat upon Abraham, it is clear that the Holy Spirit sat on the left; for this is the dwelling place assigned to him. Just as then he said to his own Son: "Sit at my right hand;" and from the fact that the Son sits at the right hand

It is possible to understand that he spoke by commission also to his own Spirit: "Sit at my left hand." But the designation of one who sits is the signification of a rank; for the one who sits is circumscribed, in the place in which he sits. But our God is by nature uncircumscribed; he seems to be circumscribed when he takes a body; for Scripture does not make God human, but speaks in terms according to us, in order that it may make manifest the things that are beyond us in such a nature. And that in the one hundred and ninth psalm it says: "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand;" and when they had sat down, Scripture says to Christ himself: "The Lord swore, and he will not repent: you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek;" and, "The Lord is at your right hand;" it is clear, then, that the Spirit is at the right hand. That the Trinity raised Christ according to the flesh from the dead. Concerning the Father it says thus: "But God both raised the Lord, and will raise us through his power." Concerning the Son: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. But he was speaking concerning the temple of his body." And concerning the Spirit: "But if the Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." That the Trinity is glorified by itself. The Son glorifies the Father; for he says: "I glorified your name on the earth;" the Father says to the Son in the Gospel: "And I have glorified, and again I will glorify." That the Son has been glorified by the Father, and the Father by the Son, he says in the Gospel:

Father, glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you." The Spirit glorifies the Son; for he says concerning the Paraclete: "He will glorify me, for he will receive of what is mine, and will declare it to you." The Son glorifies the Spirit, saying: "Every sin will be forgiven; but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven," through the fellowship with the Father and the Son; and in this, "that no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit." Concerning the glorification of the Holy Spirit. "Offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of your affliction; and I will deliver you, and you will glorify me." It is the Spirit, then, who said: "I will deliver you, and you will glorify me." It is clear that he himself said, "Offer to God." That the Trinity is present everywhere. —Concerning the Father. "I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord." Concerning the Son. "He who ascended is the same who also descended into the lower parts of the earth, that he might fill all things." Concerning the Spirit. "Where shall I go from your Spirit, and from your face where shall I flee? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I descend to Hades, you are present." Again: "But you know him, and he remains with you." And Isaiah: "He who established heaven and earth, and gives breath to the people upon it, and spirit to those who walk on it;" and, "The Spirit of the Lord has filled the world," and, "My Spirit stands in your midst." Do you see how the Spirit is placed before the Father? That no one knows the Trinity. The Savior says: "Holy Father, the world has not known you;

But I have known you." Concerning the Son in the Gospel: "He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, and the world did not know him." Concerning the Spirit: "Whom the world cannot receive, because it does not know him." That also in the Old Testament the Trinity displays its own operation. "Take," he says, "the blood of consecration, and put it on the priests, on the tip of the right ear, and on the tip of the right foot, and on the tip of the right hand." And see the head of the people sealed a third time, according to the figure of the Seraphim who say: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Sabaoth;" and according to the figure of the sheet that appeared to Peter in Joppa, let down from heaven, because it was let down three times. And when God said to Moses to tell Aaron and his sons, saying: "Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel, saying to them: And they shall put my name upon the sons of Israel, and I am the Lord, I will bless them. The Lord will bless you, and will keep you; the Lord will make his face shine upon you, and will have mercy on you. The Lord will lift up his face upon you, and will give you peace." And in the New Testament likewise concerning the Father, Paul: "But God is the one who works all things in all." Concerning the Son, the same: "But all things and in all things Christ." Concerning the Holy Spirit: "But all these things the one and the same Spirit works, distributing to each one individually just as he wills." That the Trinity is called Paraclete; for Paraclete is said because of comforting and saving, as God and Savior. Concerning the Father Paul says:

We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us." And Isaiah to Jerusalem: "He who named you will entreat you." The Son entreats, as he said: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to proclaim good news to the poor, to entreat all who mourn." John in the Epistle: "If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins." Concerning the Spirit, the Savior to his own disciples: "If you love me, keep my commandments. And I am going to my Father; and I will entreat him; and he will send you another Advocate, the Spirit of truth." Concerning the Trinity. "Great is our Lord, and great is his strength" (he calls the Son strength; and strength is power; "for Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God"); "and of his understanding there is no number," that is, of the Spirit; as the Savior said: "Behold, I give you a Spirit of wisdom and understanding"; and again: "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their host"; and again: "God will bless you, our God; God will bless you." For Scripture sometimes calls the Spirit of the Father, sometimes of the Son; sometimes it names it by itself; for it is not proclaimed in confusion, but indivisibly. Concerning the Father: "But we did not receive the spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God." And again: "But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you." Concerning the Son:

God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father." And again: "Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ is not his." Concerning the Spirit the Son said: "Do not be anxious about what or how you will speak; for it will be given to you in that hour what you will speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of my Father who speaks in you." Concerning the Spirit: "They passed through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the word of God in Asia. And when they came to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them." Concerning the Spirit: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, in whom you were sealed." The heretics say that the Godhead stands in order and subordination. We will say that it is written: "The first man was from the earth, of dust; the second man is from heaven, the heavenly." And again: "First, he says, the natural, then the spiritual." If, therefore, the second is subordinated to the first, and what is subordinated is less honorable than that to which it is subordinated, then according to you the spiritual is less honorable than the natural, and the heavenly than the earthly. Another: No one is ignorant that the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, he calls the

From the Scripture. Another: Against those who assign the Holy Spirit to the third place. He refutes them from the Old Testament, and says (when the people were exiled in Babylon), thus he says: "And I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham." Another: "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all." And another: "Where shall I go from your Spirit, and from your face where shall I flee?" That the Son is ranked before the Father. The Savior says: "I and the Father will come, and make our dwelling with him." Another: "I and the Father are one." And again the Apostle: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all." Against those who say that "from whom" and "through whom" differ, and who assign "from whom" to the Father, but "through whom" to the Son, as to the lesser. But we find from the Scriptures that "through whom" is also said of the Father, and "from whom" of the Son, and likewise of the Spirit. Concerning the Father the Apostle says: "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with his Son." Another: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God"; and again: "So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God." And: "Just as Christ was raised through the glory of the Father." And again, when Cain was born, Eve had said:

I acquired a man through God." And again, was the interpretation not given to Joseph in prison through God? Concerning the Son, from the prophecy of Isaiah Paul said: "For from him, and through him, and to him are all things." But if the heretic objects that the phrase "through whom" was spoken of God the Father, he must also grant equal dignity to the Son. And again, the Apostle to the Ephesians: "But speaking the truth in love, let us grow up in all things into him, from whom the whole body, being fitted together," and the rest. And to the Colossians, it is said against those who do not have knowledge of the Only-Begotten: "For he who holds the head," that is, Christ, "from whom the whole body through the joints and ligaments," and the rest; and, "From his fullness we all received." And the Lord himself says: "For he will receive from what is mine, and will declare it to you." And again he says: "I knew that power had gone out from me." Concerning the Spirit: "He who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life." And John says: "In this we know that God is in us, from his Spirit, which he gave us." And the angel says: "For what is born in her is from the Holy Spirit." The Lord says: "What is born of the Spirit is spirit." But if "from whom" is a command, that is, of the Father, where will one place, "Was a man not born from a woman, but the woman from a man?" Shall we then call the man God? For there are certain names common to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, such as "God," "Lord," "Holy," "Good," "Spirit," and certain others of this sort.

To some extent, then, in the matter of providence, it has been named Spirit; as, "God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." And again concerning the Son: "The Christ, the Lord, is the spirit of our countenance." Holy is the Father, and holy is the Son, but the Spirit is not being sanctified, but sanctifying; good, as the Father is good, and the Son begotten of the good is good; a straight Spirit, as straight is the Lord our God, by being Truth itself, righteousness through the immutability of his essence; Paraclete, as the Only-begotten; according to the text: "I will ask my Father, and he will give you another Paraclete." Thus the name is common to the Father and the Son with the Spirit; from their natural fellowship and kinship the appellation of these is united. For from where else, again, has it been named governing, again Spirit of truth, again Spirit of wisdom? Because whatever Christ does, the Holy Spirit also does. Energies of powers, gifts of healings. Through the Holy Spirit demons were driven out; in the Spirit of God the devil was brought to nothing; with the Spirit present, there is release from sins in the grace of the Spirit: "For you were washed, and you were sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit." The resurrection from the dead is by the activity of the Spirit: "For you will send forth your Spirit, and they will be created; and you will renew the face of the earth." And again he says:

But the Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead.” If, then, someone takes “creation” to refer to the revivification of those who have been dissolved, how is the Spirit’s activity not great, since he orders for us the life that comes from resurrection and reshapes our souls toward that spiritual life? Or if “creation” here means the reordering for the better of those who have fallen through sins—for it is spoken of in this way too according to the custom of Scripture, when Paul says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” and the renewal here, and the change from the earthly and passionate life to the heavenly citizenship, which comes about in us through the Spirit, wonderfully leads our souls to every surpassing degree—in view of these things, shall we fear lest we overstep the holy glory of the Spirit by excess of honors? Or, on the contrary, lest we bring down our conception of him to something lowly? For the apostle Peter says to Ananias: “Why has Satan filled your heart, that you should lie to the Holy Spirit? You have not lied to men, but to God.” That the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit led Israel. The prophet Jeremiah, then, speaks thus concerning the Father: that “He himself led Israel in the wilderness.” And: “They did not say,” he says, “Where is God, who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who guided us in the wilderness?” And David says: “You led your people like sheep.” But Isaiah said that the Holy Spirit led Israel in the wilderness. It is possible, then, to hear him saying:

He led them through the abyss like a horse in the desert, and they did not grow weary, and like cattle through a plain, the Spirit came down from the Lord and guided them.” And Paul says to the Corinthians that it was Christ: “For,” he says, “they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ.” But if someone says that the Spirit intercedes on our behalf, so that therefore as much as the suppliant falls short of the benefactor, so much does the Spirit fall short—let us say to him that the Only-Begotten is at the right hand of God and intercedes on our behalf: “Do not, then, grieve the Holy Spirit,” according to Paul who says, “in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” And Stephen also says: “You always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did.” And Isaiah says: “They provoked the Holy Spirit.” And elsewhere: “The house of Jacob angered the Spirit of the Lord.” But you call him a servant: “The servant does not know what his Lord is doing”; but the Spirit knows the things of God in this way, as the spirit of a man, which is in him. That the Son is true God. John writes in the Epistle: “We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know the true God, and we are in his true Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” That the Son was called great God. The Apostle to Titus: “Awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the

of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us.” The same writer to the Romans: “From whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever.” Amen. Against those who take as an insult the saying, “I did not come to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.” If it brings shame to the Son to fulfill the will of the Father, it brings shame also to God and the Father to fulfill the will of the righteous man; for “The Lord,” says David, “will do the will of those who fear him, and he will hear their supplication.” If God is not ashamed to fulfill the will of a mortal nature, the Son, because of the incarnate dispensation and his relation to us, and the servile condition that came to be for our sake, says, “I did not come to do my own will,” that is, the will of the flesh, since the flesh is his own, “but the will of the Father,” that is, the divine will. Let this not, then, be taken as a mark of lowliness, even if their understanding is especially slackened. “A leper came to him, kneeling and saying, Lord, if you will, you can cleanse me.” Did the Savior reject him? Did he say, Why do you blaspheme, “if I will”? “If God wills”? Did he not rather accept the completeness of his faith? Did he not, by the same word, reversing the syllable for him, bring him salvation, saying, “I will, be cleansed”? Willing, he cleanses a leper; willing, he gives life to a dead man; he willed, and he raised Lazarus; and his is the voice: “As the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself”; and again:

Just as the Father gives life to the dead, so also the Son gives life to whom he wills”; and David says this: “For there is wrath in his anger, and life in his will.” Against those who say that the Savior’s words to the mother of the sons of Zebedee, “What do you want?”, are the words of one who does not know: We find in the Old Testament God saying to Solomon: “Ask of me, and I will do it for you.” Did he not know, then, before she asked, what was in her soul? But he wishes us, together with the knowledge of God, to make our requests manifest, as Paul says: “And let your requests be made known to God”; that is, Make known to him what you want, not as to one who does not know, but as to one who accepts the good intention. Against those who say that the Son is placed in the rank of a servant because he offers humanity to the Father. Scripture shows the Father bringing people to the Son. For hear the Son saying: “No one can come to me unless my heavenly Father draws him.” Against those who are slaves to the words and not to the meanings of the divine Scriptures, and who make the Father the God of the Son. The Apostle says: “The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.” Here he distinguished the economy; and he calls the Only-begotten “glory,” and Jesus Christ the preaching of the economy. For he is God of the economy, and Father of the glory. But if this saying does not persuade you, but you think there is some other glory of which God is the Father, then conceive of some other nature higher than the Son, so that he may be called Father of that, and the Father of glory may be named God of this one. For the Only-begotten is called glory.

For we beheld his glory," he says, "glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father"; so that "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ" stands for "the God of the flesh of Christ"—the Father of glory, the Father of the Godhead. For Isaiah also calls the Savior "glory," according to the dignity of the Godhead; for having spoken of the wonders in the desert and having proclaimed good news to the desert, he says: "Let the desolate places of the Jordan rejoice and blossom as a lily; for the glory of Lebanon has been given to her, and the honor of Carmel. And my people shall see the glory of the Lord, and the height of God; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." Glory, then, is from glory; whence Paul also says: "Who being the brightness of the glory and the express image of his substance." The Father, then, is the Father of the glory of the Only-begotten; but God of the flesh of Christ. I do not mean one Christ and another the Only-begotten; for in thought I do not divide what is not divided in union. For he is Father of the Only-begotten before the ages; but God of the Only-begotten according to the flesh at the end of the age; always his Father, not always his God, but from the time he took flesh. The Father is God of his Godhead; for the Father is eternal, and the Son co-eternal; and the glory of the truth has no division or separation. When, then, was the Father called God of the Son because of the flesh? From the time he came forth from his mother's womb. Therefore in the prophet, wishing to show both his Godhead and his flesh to be true, he said: "From my mother's womb, you are my God." But if you wish to know the rest, you will be taught in the twenty-second psalm.

Against those who say that the Father is a great God, but the Son is not equal. Even though we most especially say that the Trinity is one Godhead, we find the Son in Scripture—to stop the mouths of the opponents—called great alongside the Father. For David says: "God is known in Judaea; in Israel his name is great." But Judaea was bounded by a visible place. And concerning the Son: "O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth!" Since the name of Christ has filled all the earth; for "their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." With good reason the psalm says: "Wonderful is your name in all the earth." And what follows? "For your magnificence has been lifted up above the heavens." And this is fulfilled when the disciples went up to the mountain with the Savior, who was about to be taken up, and he said to them: "Remain in Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high"—because it has been lifted up: "For your magnificence has been lifted up above the heavens." So David addresses him, saying: "For I will behold the heavens, the works of your fingers." For just as the Father is Lord Sabaoth, so also the Son likewise. Isaiah says: "And signs and wonders in the house of Israel from the Lord Sabaoth, who dwells on Mount Zion." And in the psalm: "But I have been established king by him on Zion, his holy mountain." Against those who say that the Spirit of Christ is less, because he was called a pledge; he says, he is a part. It is written in the Epistle to the Ephesians:

In whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, unto the redemption of the possession, unto the praise of his glory.” And we find the Father called a portion in Scripture; for it says in the psalm: “You are my portion in the land of the living”; and again in the sixteenth psalm: “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup.” Against those who say that the Son is not of the substance of the Father, because there is one authority and power, and kingdom, and Godhead of the Father and of the Son. The prophet says: “Suddenly the Lord will come into his own temple, whom you seek, and the angel of the covenant, whom you desire.” The temple, then, is God’s, and he says the temple is his own, so that the dominion of the Father may not be thought to be one thing and the kingdom of the Son another. The temple of the Father, which Solomon dedicated to God, this temple the prophet calls the Son’s: “Suddenly the Lord will come into his own temple.” Therefore the Savior says: “Cast these things out from here, and do not make the house of my Father a house of trade”; he himself says: “Cast these things out from here; for my house shall be called a house of prayer. The house,” he says, “of my Father and my house.” That the Son

He has the name of the Father, as God and Lord. The Father testifies in Exodus: "Behold, I send my angel before your face, that he may guard you in the way, that he may bring you into the land which I have prepared for you; take heed to yourself and listen to him; do not disobey him. For he will not fail you; for my name is in him." Therefore the Son says in the Gospel: "I came in the name of my Father, and you did not receive me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him." And in the one hundred and seventeenth psalm it says: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." Therefore the holy prophets called the Savior not only the Sun of righteousness and the true morning light, but also a lamp and an arm; as God testifies, saying through Isaiah the prophet: "My righteousness draws near quickly to come; and my salvation shall burn as a lamp." Let no human reasoning interpret the things of God. It is not possible to learn the truth from anyone except by learning it from itself. When the Only-begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ, was born of a virgin who knew not marriage, bringing into the world a strange travail and a strange childbirth into life—while he was still an infant, his mother carries him and brings him to Simeon the priest. He, having taken the Savior into his arms, speaks to him and says: "Now you release your servant, Master, according to your word, in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation," that is, the presence of Christ. Reasonably, then, the prophet spoke in the person of God:

And my salvation shall burn like a torch, and in my arm the nations shall hope." For again he calls the Only-Begotten the arm of the Father. And he calls him arm not as a part of the Godhead, but as united to the essence. For just as the arm is of the same essence as that of which it is the arm, for this reason he is named the arm of the Father, because he is a fellow-worker in the Father's creation. And of this proof the blessed John the evangelist is a witness, who reclined on the breast of the Savior and drew theology as from an ever-flowing fountain. For what does he say, interpreting the arm as referring to the economy of the Savior and his divinity? "Though Jesus had done many signs before them," he says, "the Jews did not believe in him, that what was spoken through Isaiah might be fulfilled: Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed?" Because the Jews were called sons of darkness. The prophet says to the sons of Israel: "Thus says the Lord: I have likened your mother to night." And interpreting what the night is, he added: "My people has been likened to one having no knowledge." Therefore where there is knowledge, there is light; where there is ignorance, there is darkness, according to David who says: "They did not know, nor did they understand; they walk in darkness." The Apostle, then, does not speak boldly against enemies, but stands by the truth; therefore he said: "We are not sons of night, nor of darkness, but sons of light and of day." Because the light of the Jews was taken away from them. The prophet Jeremiah says: "The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah." Then he adds, saying:

And I will take away from them the scent of ointment, and the light of a lamp." For the heretics are accustomed to say that the things spoken through the prophets were spoken as from the person of the Holy Spirit; whence they think, wrongly, that the Holy Spirit does less than God, because the psalm says, "Come, let us worship him," as though the Spirit were worshipping together with men. We answer them as follows. What then does it mean when it says, "Let us weep before the Lord"? Does the Spirit also weep, as you claim? And elsewhere, to show the lordship of the Spirit, it says: "For I am the Lord God." And in another place it says: "Know that the Lord himself is God"; and again: "I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me." And reproving the kingdoms, it says: "The Spirit spoke in me," not through me. And so that Paul may testify who it was that spoke through the prophets, read what was written by him in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "In many parts and in many ways God spoke of old to the fathers in the prophets; in these last days he has spoken to us in his Son." Therefore it has been made clear that the Holy Spirit is God. Again let us see how the oracle stands, which God delivered to Elijah. For at that time Elijah was pleading with God, saying: "They have thrown down your altars, and they have killed your prophets; and I alone am left; and they seek to take my life." The oracle answers him: "I have chosen for myself seven thousand men, who have not bent the knee to Baal." Let us see, then, whether the Spirit also has an oracle.

To Simeon, who was a priest and an elder, it was revealed by the Spirit: "You shall not die before you see the Christ." And when the child was brought into the temple, and he took him up in his arms, then Simeon answers: "Now you release your servant, Master, according to your word, in peace." Therefore the Spirit is Lord and Master. For they say that the Spirit is sanctifying. If indeed the power to sanctify was given to him by grace, he is found to be doing the work of priests. For he cannot be both master and servant. And if he is a servant, it is superfluous for us to be baptized in the name of the servant. For the priest does not sanctify the water, but fulfills the service required, having received it from God by grace. If, then, the Spirit does the same thing that the priest does, if the power to sanctify was given to him, as you say, why does the Father sanctify? For a king, when he commands someone to do a task, concedes it to that one whom he commands to do it; and he himself does not work. Again, the heretic, wishing to show that the Spirit calls the Word of God Lord, says: "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand." But the Savior, wishing to show that not only does the Spirit call Christ Lord, but that Christ himself is also Lord and God, when questioned by a Jew who said: "Teacher, which is the first commandment?" says to him: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart; for indeed it is written: The Lord God is one. And the second commandment: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Then the Jew answered:

You have spoken rightly, Master, that God is one." But he said this in order to deny the divinity of the Son. And the Savior, wishing to join his lordship to that of the Father, questions him: "What do you say about the Christ? Whose son is he? They say, Of David." The Savior answers: "How then does David in the Holy Spirit call him Lord? If then he is his son, how does he call him Lord?" Again they said to him, when he was casting out demons: "This man casts out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons." Then he says: "If I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your children cast them out?" And he hints that they are children, saying that the apostles were born from them, and cast out demons in the name of Jesus the Nazarene, as he says: If your children are sufficient to drive out demons by my name, I do not cast out demons by the name of Beelzebub. Against those who say that the Son asks. The heretic constructs his argument and says that the one who asks is less than the one who gives. If, then, we find the Father asking from men in the Old Testament, what do you say? "And now, Israel, what does the Lord ask from you, except to fear him?" Concerning the fact that the law was given in like manner by the Spirit, when the law was given at Pentecost, as on Mount Sinai.

Moses bears witness, saying: "And the glory of the God of Israel was on Mount Sinai, as a burning fire," so that the saying might be fulfilled: "I came to cast fire upon the earth"—a fire not destructive but purifying. For this reason it was given to Isaiah on his lips. And he says: "Behold, I have forgiven your sins." So then the Holy Spirit appeared at Pentecost in the form of fire. For tongues as of fire were divided, and it sat upon each one of them. And just as in the Old Covenant, when God appeared, there were many terrifying things that attended him—darkness, and tempest, and trumpet, and thunders resounding around the mountain—which were preparing the people beforehand for fear of the lawgiver; so also when the Holy Spirit was about to visit, so that they might learn the worth of the Spirit visiting in glory. Just as on the mountain darkness and tempest ran before, so also it happened with the Spirit: "When the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled, there came a sound as of a rushing violent wind, and then the Spirit appeared, and shook the house." For the heretics say that the Spirit is a gift from God.

We say "gift of life" (for he freed us; for the law of the Spirit of life freed us), and "gift of power": "For you will receive power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you." And we show both Son and adoption as sons, because he granted the Holy Spirit to men; and shortly after: "How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" and elsewhere: "That we might see the things graciously given to us by God." Paul, speaking in the epistle to the Hebrews about the mystery of the incarnation, having set beside it the phrase that says: "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me," works it out concerning Christ, saying: "Since therefore the children have shared in blood and flesh, he himself likewise partook of the same, so that through death he might destroy the one who holds the power of death, that is, the devil." And in these words he calls the apostles his children, over whom the Lord Sabaoth, who dwells on Mount Zion, teaches that he will perform signs and wonders in the house of Israel. And he says that these very men will be manifest, sealing their face with the seal of Christ, and being taught no longer to learn the law of Moses, since it no longer commends him, and that the so-called house of Jacob has been abandoned by God. For God the Word defends the agreement of the Father and the Son. And do not think that the words are of lowliness, but of love for mankind; for the form is of lowliness, but the promise is of one who loves mankind; for Christ, the Lord of all, is this very one who says to the Jews:

Who among you convicts me of sin?" He is the Son of the one who says through the prophet Micah: "My people, what have I done to you, or how have I wearied you? Answer me"; and the one who said through the Gospels: "If I spoke evil, testify concerning the evil," is the Son of the one who says to Jeremiah: "I said to the dwelling of Israel: What fault or wrong did your fathers find in me, that they departed far from me?" O that love of humanity, in which goodness is nature—or rather, not nature, but our own conception! How the goodness of God is displayed. He says to Moses: "I am God, who repays the sins of fathers upon children." And for how long? "To the third and fourth generation." Notice how he extended the punishment to four generations. But the love of humanity—to what extent? "And showing mercy to thousands of those who love me." So all the prophets, gathered together, fulfilled the remembrance of the economy. Moses made the type of the cross, and the Savior bears witness, saying: "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up." Likewise also Jonah

He made the remembrance of death. For he went down into the sea monster, and after three days he was given back up, and he became a type of the resurrection. The Savior again takes this up and brings the type into truth, saying: "And just as Jonah was in the belly of the sea monster three days and three nights, so must the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth." That the Trinity is consubstantial. What is God? The beginning of all things, according to the Apostle, who says: "One God the Father, from whom are all things." For the Word is from him by generation, and the Spirit is from him by procession. Then all creation through the Word in the Spirit was established creatively. That to blaspheme against the Son is to blaspheme against the holy Trinity. To many on earth the word of the Lord has become fearful, the one that says: "Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven to men; but whoever speaks a word against the holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him neither in this age nor in the one to come." For this reason the divine Apostle exhorts all, saying that the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. For many of the divine Scriptures, if we understand them according to the letter, we fall into unlawful blasphemies; such is also the present oracle of the Lord before us; which if we take the words according to the bare sense, we will not only fall into unlawful thoughts, but we will find the Lord himself opposing himself. For if "whoever speaks a word against the Son, it will be forgiven him," how did the Son himself say:

Whoever denies me before men, I also will deny him before the angels of God;" and again, if every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, and we will give an account even for an idle word, how is the one who says to his brother, "Fool," liable to the Gehenna of fire? And how does the apostle Paul also say: "Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor revilers, nor drunkards, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God." And if these things are so, how then, tell me, is it that every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men? And if this again is true, why then is the wretched Origen accused, who proclaims an end of punishment, in that he says that forgiveness of every sin has come from God both to men and to demons? And again, if the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness, why does the Church censure Novatus, who rejects repentance? But that which is more obscure and difficult to grasp is this: that whoever speaks a word against the Son, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Spirit, it will not be forgiven him; so that the Son is less than the Holy Spirit and the Father. And how does the Son say, "I and the Father are one," and, "He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father?" And again he says here, that "whoever speaks a word against the Son, it will be forgiven him?" Is the blasphemy against the Son, then, tell me, to be forgiven to the Arians, and Simonians, and Sabellians, and Photinians, and all the rest, who have blasphemed against the incarnation of the Son?

Away with the absurdity! For if the one who says to his brother, "Fool," is liable to the Gehenna of fire, into what Gehenna of Gehenna, tell me, will he be cast who calls his own God a creature, and not a Son of God but a servant, and a subordinate, and a little one? And if whoever speaks a word against the Son will be forgiven him, how did the Son himself say, "The one who does not eat my flesh and drink my blood has no eternal life"? And how can anyone who dishonors the Son fail to blaspheme against the Trinity? But the one who blasphemes against it clearly denies the holy baptism. And the one who denies the holy baptism clearly strips himself of the Holy Spirit. And just as in the case of the visible sun, if you insult its heat or its ray, the insult reaches up to its whole nature; so too in the case of the thrice-sunlit light and mystery of the Holy Trinity, the blasphemy against the dishonor of one person is against the whole fullness of the Godhead. What then is it that is said by the Lord to the Jews, that "Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men; but whoever speaks a word against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him neither in this age nor in the age to come"? Let us listen with understanding, and not be deceived. That Christ is twofold after the ineffable union—I mean, of divinity and humanity—the sacred Scriptures cry out to us: "For the Word became flesh." At any rate, the same Christ calls the divinity of the Word the Holy Spirit, just as he also said to the Samaritan woman, that "God is Spirit"; and his humanity, the Son of Man.

As he says again elsewhere concerning his own flesh: "Now the Son of Man has been glorified." If, then, the Jews who were always offending God had a twofold blasphemy against Christ. Some, stumbling at his flesh, that is, at the Son of Man, thought him to be a prophet, but not God; and to these he granted forgiveness; for it was the beginning of the preaching, and the world was thus able to believe that God was a man appearing; therefore Christ also says, "Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man," that is, against his body, "it will be forgiven him." For I dare to say that not even his blessed disciples themselves had a perfect understanding concerning his divinity, until the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost. Since even after the resurrection, when they saw him, some worshiped, but some doubted; yet they were not condemned for this. But those who blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, that is, against the divinity of Christ, and said, "By Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, he casts out the demons"—to these, he says, "it will not be forgiven, neither in this age nor in the age to come." And again it must be noted that Christ did not say, "To the one who has blasphemed and repented it will not be forgiven," but to the one who is blaspheming, that is, to the one persisting in blasphemy; since no sin is unforgivable with God for those who truly and worthily repent.

What are the Gospels? The presence of the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was made flesh for the salvation of the human race, from the Holy Spirit and Mary, the ever-virgin. Concerning angels. What is the definition of the essence of an angel? For an angel is a rational, immaterial, hymn-singing, immortal living being. And what is the work of the heavenly powers? Unceasing hymn, and unceasing love of the majesty of God; and perhaps also persistent prayer for our salvation. And since these very orders are also called soldiers, one must then understand an order of teaching, an order of commanding, an order of punishing, an order of bestowing gifts on souls, an order of remaining among men. And just as we have recognized a difference of order among the powers above, so also of station and of knowledge. The thrones, and the seraphim, and the cherubim learn directly from God, as being higher than all and nearest to God; but these teach the lower ranks, and so in succession the higher teach the lower. And the lower rank is the angels, who are also teachers of men. What is man? Man is a living being, intelligent, perceptive of the divine mind, and receptive of eternal life, and by the deprivation of this, mortal. Of this man, then, who is according to the earth-born formation. That man is composite, and not simple, nor of parts of the same kind, but of an incorporeal mind, and of a body

of the desiring part, that is, of the animate. As Paul taught, assigning the desiring part of the flesh to the soul, which he also called flesh together with its own will—the flesh of man, which he said also wars against the spirit. But that which has no motion, nor its own will, does not war. And this flesh he said fights against the spirit, not the motionless, nor the soulless. For a natural passionate motion has been sown in it, with which it is called flesh, as in the Epistle to the Romans he explained still more clearly, making plain the motion that is in the flesh, fighting against the mind and resisting, since it is surely not the same, but other than the mind: "For I delight," he says, "in the law of God, after the inner man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and taking me captive." And this will Paul also specifically called soul, separating it from the spirit, when he says: "May God sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." In this he interpreted the whole man as spirit, soul, and body, and prayed that he be sanctified and preserved blameless. He showed, then, that the spirit is what is sanctified, which is the human mind; and the soul, after this, the desiring part; and the body, the earthly tabernacle; so that according to this division the earth-born man is threefold: the intellectual, the desiring, the bodily. This will, that is, the soul, the desiring part, is united to the mind of man and to the body.

When the noetic part prevails, then, the whole is a noetic man—although he has what is intertwined within fleshly desires, according to the evident difference and conflict of the rational and the irrational, of that which is in man, not prevailing but being prevailed over. And it is called the governing part, just as the mind governs the living body. Man, then, through the governance of mind partook of divinity, being a noetic living being; for this reason he says: "He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.