Pro Fide Catholica Adversus Pintam Episcopum Arianum Liber Unus

Saint Fulgentius: One Book in Defense of the Catholic Faith, Against Pintas, the Arian Bishop. 1. That the most faithful foundation of the Catholic faith, after Christ, is the apostles is attested by the sound integrity of the faith itself. This principle is suggested by some hidden operation of the Holy Spirit, sown and implanted in the minds of the faithful, perhaps even when the preaching itself ceases. Yet who among the right-believing is ignorant that all heresies have gone forth from the Catholic Church, like useless shoots cast off from the vine? She herself, however, remains in her root, in her vine, in her love, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her (Matt. 16:18). The one Church, the true Church, the Catholic Church, fighting against all heresies, is able to fight but cannot be conquered. Concerning her, Solomon in the Song of Songs, speaking in the person of Christ praising his spouse—whom we believe to be the Church—says: “Behold, my beloved is like a lily among thorns” (Song 2:2). For the integrity of the Church is daily pricked, as if by thorns, by the dogmas of various heresies, so that, keeping watch, she may be exercised against her enemies, until, standing out like a lily upon the head of her spouse, she is adorned by that very whiteness.

Indeed, because a certain man, driven by his own spirit, has presumed that the cultivators of that faith should be called Homousians or Unisubstantians, we must respond to his ignorance. For so great and so mighty is almighty God that He pronounces good things even through evil men; just as through a wicked high priest (John 11:49) He deigned to foretell the sacrament of our redemption. For that man who composed this pamphlet, conceived with a savage mind, thought that a collection of divine testimonies from both the New and the Old Testament should be set against the term *homousion*. The Apostle long ago foretold of such men, saying: "Not knowing what they are talking about, nor what they affirm" (1 Tim. 1:7). For if he knew what *homousion* means when expressed from Greek into Latin, he would strive to praise it rather than to reproach it. For our three hundred and eighteen fathers, who compounded the antidote of this word to exclude the poisons of Arius, did not use words foreign to the Gospel, but took care to insinuate word for word, for the easier instruction of those who did not yet understand the principle of the right faith, the meaning of the rite. For *homos* means "one," and *usia* is called "substance" in the Greek language. Consult the saying of the Gospel, and you will find this uttered by the divine mouth: "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). Examine the plural, and return to the singular truth of substance.

For he said, "I and the Father are one," and by saying "are," he set forth a statement distinguishing his own person and that of the Father, against Sabellius, whom he foresaw would be a future heretic. By saying "one," he equally foresaw Arius, who does not hesitate to cut apart the substance of the divinity. For Sabellius wrongly joined, and Arius more wickedly separated. It was necessary, then, to separate the person of the Father and the Son against Sabellius, and in no way to separate the substance of the divinity against Arius. They consider it a great crime against the faith to apply the term "Catholic" to its followers when they call them Homousians or Unisubstantians, as if the term "homoousion" or "substance" contains the name of the divinity or of any man, in the way that the authors of various heresies thought their own name should be preached as a sect to their disciples. Thus the Simonians from Simon, the Menandrians from Menander, the Marcionists from Marcion, the Valentinianists from Valens, the Manichaeans from Manes, the Nepotians from Nepos; and to pass over ancient and almost extinct heresies, I will name the newer ones: such as the Sabellians from Sabellius, the Arians from Arius, the Eunomians from Eunomius, the Macedonians from Macedonius, the Apollinarists from Apollinaris, the Nestorians from Nestorius, the Donatists from Donatus, the Maximianists from Maximianus, the Rogatists from Rogatus; and if there are any others who are called Christians only in name, not in deed, who, having abandoned God, venerate the names of their own founders.

Let the one who thought the *homoousion* should be charged against Catholics teach that *homoousion* is the name of some man. For it would seem to me, unless the most brilliant summit of the Gospel had become clearer than light to all peoples, that the Arians, in order to consider how to foster their heresy, could uproot from the Gospel the very words of the Lord themselves, that is, "I and the Father are one," which (as has been said) translated word for word, the Fathers established as *homoousion*. But as for what they argue among the unlearned, whether many or few should be believed, because the Council of Nicaea was celebrated with three hundred and eighteen Fathers, while they boast that the Council of Ariminum was gathered with eight hundred and thirty, where cunning men tried to interpolate the *homoousion* among the unlearned, I will relate it briefly. Behold, the *homoousion* prevailed among the few, so that it became known to the other bishops established throughout the whole world, that they rejoice to be adorned by its confession. But if the later Council of Ariminum was gathered in such a multitude, as they assert, bishops of its sect would multiply throughout the world, the peoples would increase, such a faith would even occupy the empires themselves. But when the cunning of that fraud was recognized by prudent and most proven men, the *homoousion* was so confirmed that we see scarcely the remnants of Ariminum remaining to test Catholics. Let us consult the city of Ariminum itself, where this business of fraud was conducted, or rather concocted, if it pleases.

I do not know whether he has a bishop of his own sect; for concerning Milan I will assert more freely, where Auxentius poured out the poisons of his sect like a cunning craftsman, whose dogma the later Ambrose, filled with the Holy Spirit, so destroyed that his name after death was erased from the memory of the living in that same city, and his name is held as some kind of contagion. Through this Ambrose the faith of the then Augustus Gratian was strengthened, and growth among bishops and peoples increased more and more. For Almighty God, who through all the Scriptures did not omit the growth of His Church, could not abandon His promise and allow falsehood to increase. Let this be said concerning all heresies. Moreover, in what follows, with God’s help, who both instructs the heart and guides the tongue, such testimonies will be set forth concerning the one God, and concerning the power and invisibility, or the equality of the Son with the Father, and the divinity of the Holy Spirit, which Trinity, even against their will, is nevertheless one God, that if they do not love the darkness of contention, they must necessarily see the light of truth. And lest anyone be disturbed by what we have said, that the growth of the Church was promised throughout all the Scriptures, and if they claim that it was granted through this oppression, let them know that it is written in Jeremiah: “The partridge will cry out, it will gather what it did not hatch, it will make its riches not with judgment” (Jer. 17:11).

And this is the most certain proof, that the Catholic faith has never grown except through tribulations and persecutions, so that what is said may be fulfilled: that through many tribulations and hardships we must see the kingdom of God (Acts 14:21). The growth of that faith is attested by the exiles of the innocent, the proscriptions of the wretched, and the torments and oppression of captives. But I see some opponents in labor, and they throw the persecutions of the Donatists in our faces, whose madness did violence to the laws, and they suffered these things by the laws. For if any of them the Catholic mother received into her pious bosom, without any injury to baptism, without any loss of burden, without any insult to the Holy Spirit, so that those who were converted willingly would grieve that charity had so long been hidden from them. Catholic testimonies concerning one God. The first voice of God: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God (Deut. 6:4). In Deuteronomy: The Lord alone led them, and there was no foreign god with them (Deut. 32:12). Likewise there: See, see that I am God, and there is no other besides me (Ibid., 59). In Exodus likewise: You shall have no other gods besides me (Exod. 20:3). Likewise: He who sacrifices to other gods besides me shall be eradicated (Ibid., 5). Likewise: You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone (Deut. 6:13). Likewise: For there is no other god either in heaven or on earth who can do your works or be compared to your greatness (Deut. 3:24).

In the prophet Hosea: "You shall know no Lord besides me, and there will be no savior besides me" (Hos. 13:4). In Isaiah: "I am God, and there is no savior besides me: I have announced, and I have saved, and there will be no foreign god among you" (Isa. 43:). In the same: "Thus says the Lord, who made the heaven; this is God who stretched out the earth and made it: he did not make it in vain, but that it might be inhabited. I am, I am, and there is no other. I am God, and there is no other" (Isa. 45:). "I swear by myself, unless justice goes forth from my mouth, my words will not return: for every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will swear by God" (Ibid., 22 and 24). In the same: "From eternity we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen any God besides you" (Isa. 64:); and, "Before me there was no God, and besides me there will be no other" (Isa. 43:10). "I am the first God, and I am in those things that come after" (Isa. 44:6). In the body of the Psalms: "What God is there besides our Lord?" (Ps. 17:32). Likewise: "For what great God is like our God? You are God, who alone works wonders" (Ps. 76:15). Likewise: "Let the nations know that your name is Lord: you alone are the highest over all the earth" (Ps. 82:16). This applies more to the Son. In the books of Kings: "Hezekiah against Sennacherib: 'Lord God of Israel, you are the only God of all the kings of the earth'" (2 Kings 19:15). In the same: "Lord our God, save us from their hand: that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the only Lord" (Ibid., 19).

Solomon, in prayer, stretched out his hands toward heaven and said: "Lord God of Israel, there is no god like you, neither in heaven above, nor on earth below" (1 Kings 8:23). And although two or three testimonies about one God would suffice, let those who introduce two gods to us hear. For they confess God the Father and God the Son: this is indeed true; but whoever does not honor the Son as he honors the Father is impious. For if sacrifice or honor is due to the Father, it is also due to the Son. But when you assert the Father as greater and the Son as lesser, you introduce two gods: you are sacrilegious in both respects, both by not hearing that "the Lord your God is one God" (Deut. 6:4), and by not honoring the Son as you honor the Father. The Son interposed no degrees. Ask what honor is due to the Father. You strive to the insult of both, both of the Father, because his Son is not heard, of whom the Father says, "Hear him" (Matt. 17:5), and of the Son, whom you dare to despise in his own commandment. But let other testimonies about the equality of the Father and the Son now be presented.

Testimonies on the Equality of the Father and the Son. In the Apocalypse: "And he had written on his garment, or on his thigh, 'King of kings, and Lord of lords'" (Revelation 19:16; 1 Timothy 6:15). If the Apostle says this of the Father, here it is clearly said of the Son. In the same: "Blessed and holy is he who has a part in the first resurrection. In them the second death has no power; but they will be priests of God and of his Christ, and will reign with him" (Revelation 20:6). In the same: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give the fountain of the water of life freely to the thirsty. He who drinks will possess these things, and I will be God to him, and he will be a son to me" (Revelation 21:6). In the same: "And I saw no temple in it. For the Lord God Almighty is its temple, and the Lamb" (Revelation 21:22). No difference. In the same: "And he showed me a river of the water of life, shining, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb" (Revelation 22:1). One throne, not two. In the same: "The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and they will serve him" (Revelation 22:3). In the Epistle of John: "Everyone who does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God. He who remains in the teaching has both the Son and the Father" (2 John 9). The Son first. In the Epistle of Jude: "Denying our Ruler and God Jesus Christ" (Jude 4). Both God and Lord. In the Apocalypse: "They say to the mountains and rocks, 'Hide us from the face of the one sitting on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of their wrath has come, and who will be able to stand?'" (Revelation 6:16). One, or equal, judgment.

In the same passage: "Salvation to our God and to the Lamb" (Apoc. 7:10). In the same passage: "The kingdom of this world has become that of our Lord God and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever" (Apoc. 11:15). "He will reign," not "They will reign." In the same passage: "And I heard a great voice from heaven saying, 'Salvation and power and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have been made'" (Apoc. 12:10). No division. In the same passage: "And I saw, and behold the Lamb stood upon Mount Sion, and with him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads" (Apoc. 14:1). Does it prejudice that the Son is named first, where there is one power? In the same passage: "These have been bought from among men, firstfruits to God and to the Lamb" (Ibid., 4). In the same passage: "These will fight with the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them: because He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings" (Apoc. 17:14). What more does the Father have? Let it be said. To the Hebrews: "For God, promising Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom to swear, swore by himself, saying" (Heb. 6:13). If it is understood of the Father, He will be visible; if of the Son, there will be no one greater than Him. The Father in the Gospel: "That all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father" (John 5:23). And because He has one who sent Him, this sending is not from place to place. For the sun also sends rays, and is not separated from itself. Likewise: "Just as the Father raises the dead, so also the Son raises whomever He wishes" (Ibid., 21). Behold the Son, whomever He wishes; behold the Spirit, wherever He wishes.

The Son says to Philip: "He who sees me, sees also the Father" (John 14:9). And again: "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?" (John 14:1). Behold the equality of the Father and the Son. Again: "Father, glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you" (John 17:1). Equal power. But these suffice concerning the equality of the Son with the Father. Testimonies concerning the Son's divinity. i. In Job: "He who stretches out the heaven alone, and walks upon the sea as upon the land" (Job 9:8). In Jeremiah: "This is our God, and no other shall be accounted besides him; who found every path of wisdom, and gave it to his servant Jacob, and to his beloved Israel. After this he was seen on earth, and conversed with men" (Baruch 3:36, 37, 38). Do we, because the person of the Son is here expressed, by saying "that no other shall be accounted besides him," separate the Father from the divinity? In Isaiah: "Egypt is wearied, and the merchandise of Ethiopia. Many shall come to you, and they shall be your servants; and they shall walk after you, bound with fetters; and they shall adore you, and they shall pray to you: because in you is God, and you are God alone, and we knew it not: God of Israel, our Savior" (Isaiah 45:14, 15). In this very clear testimony, not only the divinity of the Son, but also the highest equality with the Father is shown. For what it says, "In you is God, and you are God," this is said in the Gospel: "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me" (John 14:11).

To the Romans: "Whose fathers, and from whom Christ, who is God blessed above all forever" (Rom. 9:5). The proper divinity of the Son. To the Corinthians, second: "Who is the image of the invisible God" (2 Cor. 4:4). If an image, then truth. In the same place: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself" (2 Cor. 5:19). If God wholly, then not partially. To the Ephesians: "To proclaim the incomprehensible riches of Christ" (Eph. 3:8). Are they Christ's alone, and not the Father's? To the Colossians: "Because in him it pleased all the fullness of divinity to dwell bodily" (Col. 2:9). Note here both "all fullness" and "divinity": where there is nothing that can be added. In the same place: "That God might show the riches of his mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ" (Col. 1:27). Behold, the riches of God is Christ. In the same place: "That in the knowledge of the mystery of God, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:3). Complete fullness. To the Philippians: "Who, when he was established in the form of God" (Phil. 2:6). You hear "form," and do you deny equality? In the same place: "But God the Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you" (1 Thess. 3:11). Behold, both direct: equal power. To Timothy, first: "That you keep the irreprehensible commandment, until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the blessed and only powerful one will show in his own times" (1 Tim. 5:14), etc.

Does it follow that because he said "Only powerful," the Father is excluded from power? To Titus: "But the grace of God and of our Savior Jesus Christ has shone forth to all men" (Titus 2:11). In the same place (v. 13): "Waiting for the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of the great God and of our Savior Jesus Christ." If the Son is the great God, he lacks nothing. In the same place: "But when the kindness and humanity of our Savior Jesus Christ shone forth" (Titus 3:4). Here he was silent neither about the humanity nor about the divinity. John to the Parthians: "That we may believe in his true Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life" (1 John 5:20). In this testimony, whoever denies the perfection of God to the Son is Antichrist. Second Peter: "For thus abundantly will be ministered to you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:11). And although these few testimonies concerning the divinity of the Son are like a drop lifted from the great sea of the Scriptures themselves—since all Scripture bears witness both to his divinity and also to his humanity on account of the flesh he assumed, just as he himself says in the Gospel according to John: "Search the Scriptures, because you think you have eternal life in them; and they are the ones that bear witness concerning me" (John 5:39). He did not say "concerning us," lest he introduce two gods.

In Luke, Jesus said to them: "These are the words which I spoke to you, when I was still with you: because it is necessary that all things which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms concerning me be fulfilled" (Luke 24:44). Does he exclude the Father from the testimony of the Scriptures, because here too he says, "Concerning me"? Concerning the omnipotence of the Son in Solomon: "Your word, O Lord, is omnipotent; it came from the heavens from royal thrones" (Wisdom 18:15). In Zechariah: "O, flee from the land of the north, says the Lord: because from the four winds of heaven I will gather you. Says the Lord: In Zion, be saved, you who dwell in the daughter of Babylon. For this reason the omnipotent Lord says: After the glory, he sent me to the nations which despoiled you. For this reason, whoever touches you is as one who touches the pupil of his eye. For this reason, I will bring my hand upon them, and they will be prey to those who plunder them; and you will know that the omnipotent Lord sent me" (Zechariah 2:1 and following). Above it says "omnipotent," below "the omnipotent sends": are there two omnipotents? The prophet Amos: "The Lord who touches the earth and shakes it, and all who dwell in it will mourn; and he will rise up like the river of Egypt, who builds his ascent upon heaven, and establishes his descent upon the earth; who calls the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth: the omnipotent Lord is his name" (Amos 9:5). Are not all these things understood to pertain to the Son?

who, descending, touched the earth, stirred by the passion, and from the lands ascended into heaven, and descended from heaven upon the earth, as he himself promised in the Apocalypse (Chapter 3, 14): "These things says the one who is a faithful witness, the beginning of God's creatures: Who is, and who was, and who is to come, the omnipotent Lord" (Revelation 1:8). It moves because he said, "the beginning of God's creature"; let it move because it was said, "the omnipotent Lord": so that this pertains to the divinity, and that which was born pertains to the Virgin Mary. Testimonies concerning the Trinity. In the Gospel: "Go, baptize the nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). "In the name," not "In the names." Likewise: "The kingdom of heaven is like a woman who hid leaven in three measures of flour until the whole was leavened" (Matthew 13:33). Here the woman represents the Church, which hides the faith of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit in equal measures in the hearts of believers. In the Apocalypse: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Hosts" (Revelation 4:8). I hear "holy" three times, and one Lord God. In the same place: "And the angel said to me: 'These words are true words of God.' And I fell before his feet to worship him; and he said to me: 'See that you do not do so; I am your fellow servant, and that of your brothers who have the testimony of Jesus, and the spirit of prophecy'" (Revelation 19:9, 10). What is clearer than light for showing the Trinity, if not the true words of the Father, the testimony of the Son, the gift of prophecy of the Holy Spirit?

In the Psalms: With you is the fountain of life, and in your light we shall see light (Psalm 35:10). With God the Father is the fountain of life, Christ; and because he is light in him, the Holy Spirit is seen as the illuminator: for he who does not have the Spirit of Christ is not his (Romans 8:9). In Psalm 66: May our God bless us, our God, may God bless us, and may all the ends of the earth fear him. I hear God three times, and one is proclaimed as to be feared. In the Epistle of John: There are three in heaven who bear witness, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit: and the three are one (1 John 5:7). What shall I say of the patriarch Abraham? who, when he saw the appearance of three men, recognized one God in them, when he says: Lord Master (Genesis 18:3). With bodily ministry he shows the office of humanity to three; yet from one he received the benefit of offspring, when it is said to him: I will come at this time, and Sarah will have a son (verse 10). He did not say we will come, but I will come: lest he seem to introduce a multitude of gods. For that you may know that the Trinity dwells together, and together shuns impurity, hear what the Lord says in the Gospel: He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him (John 14:21); and, We will come, I and my Father, and we will make our abode with him (verse 23). Behold, the Father and the Son dwell in one abode. What of the Holy Spirit? Hear the Apostle saying: You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you (1 Corinthians 3:16).

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are shown to dwell together; let it be shown that the same Trinity shuns impurity. In Solomon you have: "But perverse thoughts separate from God" — this concerning the Father. "For wisdom will not enter a malicious soul" — this concerning the Son. "For a disciplined spirit will flee from a feigned one and will withdraw itself from thoughts that are without understanding" (Wisdom 1:3,4,5) — this concerning the Holy Spirit. But that you may gather concisely the sense of Scripture speaking unitedly about the nature of the Trinity, you have likewise in Exodus: "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (Exodus 3:6). In the Psalm: "The Lord lives, and blessed is my God, and let the God of my salvation be exalted" (Psalm 17:47). Paul: "The same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God" (1 Corinthians 12:4,5,6). Does it offend Catholic sensibility because the Spirit was named first? Likewise, if you seek the Lord, the Trinity itself being spoken of, hear: "Bring glory and honor to the Lord, bring glory to the Lord, to his name" (Psalm 28:2). Because the King is the Trinity itself: "Remove your gates, princes, and be lifted up, eternal gate, and the King of glory will enter." Who is this King of glory? "The Lord of hosts himself is the King of glory" (Psalm 23:9). Testimony has been given: God repeated three times, Lord called three times, King. They are not distinguished as gods, nor lords, nor kings, because they are discerned in three names and persons: for there is one divinity, one dominion, one royal rule.

Whoever, with a zeal for unjust victory, contradicts this truth, I do not say will be condemned, but is already condemned. Testimonies concerning the Holy Spirit, that He is God. In the beginning of the book of Genesis: "And the Spirit of God was borne over the waters" (Gen. 1:2): He who would sanctify the waters in the figure of baptism, not He who would rest from weariness. In Job: "The divine Spirit is He who made me, and the Spirit of the Almighty who teaches me" (Job 33:4). In the divinity, perfection. In the Gospel: "The Spirit is God, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). Again: "For God does not give the Spirit by measure" (John 3:31). Behold, the Spirit is immense. To Nicodemus: "For the Spirit breathes where it wills, and you hear its voice, and you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes" (Ibid., 8). When you hear, "Where it wills," it is its own power. In Christ Himself: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me" (Luke 4:18). Unless a pious understanding recalls these words, the Spirit will be greater than the Son. Again: "Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan" (Ibid., 1). A similar understanding. Again: "If therefore you see the Son of man ascending where he was before, it is the Spirit that gives life; for the flesh is of no use whatsoever" (John 6:63). He who gives life lacks nothing of divinity. Again: "When the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, whom the Father will send in my name, comes, He Himself will lead you into all truth, and will teach you" (John 16:13). He is God who will lead into all truth.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter to Cornelius: Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:38). A man was anointed, not God. Likewise to Ananias: Why did Satan tempt your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3)? And he adds: You have not lied to men, but to God (verse 4). Likewise: Thus says the Holy Spirit: Separate for me Saul and Barnabas, in the ministry to which I have called them (Acts 13:2). Here he introduces neither the person of the Father nor of the Son, whom, however, a sound understanding does not separate from the command. Likewise the Apostle to the Gentiles through the Epistle: It pleased, he says, the Holy Spirit and us not to impose upon you more than to abstain from idols, from fornication, and from blood (Acts 15:28). Was this command made without the Father and the Son? Likewise there: But the Spirit said to Peter: Arise and go with them, because I sent them to you (Acts 10:19). Does not the creator command the creature? Likewise there: From Miletus, however, Paul, sending to Ephesus, summoned the presbyters and elders (Acts 20:17); and after much exhortation he added: Attend to the flock of Christ, in which the Holy Spirit has appointed you bishops (ibid., 28). Is the Father or the Son separated from this appointment of the priest? Paul to the Romans: But the Spirit is eternal life and peace (Rom. 8:6). This is the Father, this is the Son, this is the Holy Spirit; but one life, not three. In the same place: The Spirit is life on account of righteousness (ibid., 10). This is the Father, this is the Son.

As above: "If, however, His Spirit, who raised Christ from the dead, dwells in you" (v. 11). What kind of God is this who raised the flesh of the Creator from the dead? As above: "For we have not received the spirit of servitude" (v. 15). No one is free except God, who is the Holy Spirit. As above: "Now may God fill you with all joy and peace in believing, in the abundance of hope and the power of the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 15:13). Just as Christ is the power of God, so is the Holy Spirit. As above: "So that the offering of the Gentiles may be sanctified in the Holy Spirit" (Ibid., 16). The Spirit, as it gives life, so also sanctifies. As above: "For I dare not speak anything of those things which Christ does not effect through me in the obedient Gentiles, by word and deed, through the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit" (Ibid., 18, 19). The Son is power, the Spirit is power, the Father is power; but one, not three. To the first Corinthians: "But the Spirit searches everything. No one knows what belongs to God except His Spirit" (1 Cor. 2:10, 11). As above: "You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you" (1 Cor. 3:16). It is God who dwells in His temple. As above: "You have been washed and sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. 6:11). Behold, the Son and the Holy Spirit cleanse and sanctify together. As above: "One and the same Spirit works all things, distributing to each as He wills" (1 Cor. 12:11).

He who freely does what he wills is subject to no one. To the Corinthians, second: "An epistle written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God" (2 Cor. 3:5). The spirit of a man is not less than the man; how much more the Spirit of God! The same place: "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (Ibid., 6). He who gives life is God: because "the Lord kills and gives life" (1 Kings 2:6). To the Galatians: "That we may receive the blessing of the Spirit through faith" (Gal. 3:14). It is God who blesses. The same place: "We live by the Spirit, and let us walk by the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25). He who again blesses, himself gives life as God. The same place: "He who sows in the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life" (Gal. 6:8). In these three testimonies to the Galatians, the Spirit both blesses, and gives life, and gives eternal life. To the Ephesians: "In whom you are sealed, believing, in the Holy Spirit" (Eph. 1:13). We are sealed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The same place: "In whom you are built up into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit" (Eph. 2:22). Again: "It was revealed to his holy apostles in the Spirit, that the Gentiles are co-heirs" (Eph. 3:5). One and the same Spirit works all things: he makes heirs. The same place: "That he may give to you according to the riches of his glory, the power to be strengthened through his Spirit" (Ibid., 16). No one strengthens except God. The same place: "Diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3). Peace is Christ. Are there two peaces?

As above: "And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph. 6:17). The word of God is Christ; the Holy Spirit is the word of God. Are there two words? To the Philippians: "Whether absent, I hear of you, that you stand in one Spirit" (Phil. 1:27), that is, in God. To the Thessalonians: "God took you from the beginning to salvation in the sanctification of the Spirit" (2 Thess. 2:12). To Timothy, first: "Great is the sacrament of piety, which was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit" (1 Tim. 3:16). Behold, the Holy Spirit also sanctifies the incarnation of Christ. To Timothy, second: "Guard the good deposit of faith, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us" (2 Tim. 1:14). If the Spirit were not God, the Apostle would not dare to adjure the disciple through him. Moreover, "who dwells in us." To Titus: "He saved us through the bath of regeneration, through the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). Peter to the Gentiles: "These things were announced to you by those who evangelized you, the Holy Spirit sent from heaven: in whom the angels desire to look" (1 Pet. 1:12). He is God whom the angels desire to look upon. As above: "Christ died for our sins, the just for the unjust: that he might offer us to God, dead indeed in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit" (1 Pet. 3:18). As above: "That they may be judged indeed according to man in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit" (1 Pet. 4:6).

As above: If you are reproached in Christ, because the Spirit of the Lord's glory rests in you (Ibid., 14). The glory of the Father is Christ; the glory is the Holy Spirit. Are there two glories? Second Peter: Understanding this first, that all prophecy of Scripture is not accomplished by its own interpretation. For prophecy was never brought forth by human will, but men of God spoke, acted upon by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:20-21). No one inspires the gift of prophecy except God. John to the Parthians: In this we know that He remains in us, concerning the Holy Spirit whom He gave us (1 John 3:24). As above: Because we remain in Him, and He in us; because He gave us of His Spirit (1 John 4:13). He gave, which you hear, is an operation of power, not a separation of divinity. In the Apocalypse: And after three days and a half, the Spirit of life from God entered into them; and they stood upon their feet (Rev. 11:11). That which proceeds from God is God. As above: It writes: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. From now on the Spirit says that they should rest from their labors (Rev. 14:13). It did not say the Father, it did not say the Son, but the Spirit, who through this command is shown to be God. To the Hebrews: For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled, sanctify the polluted for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more the blood of Christ, who through the Holy Spirit offered Himself immaculate to God (Heb. 9:13-14)!

This testimony teaches what power the Holy Spirit possesses, through whom the flesh of Christ is shown to be immaculate. In the same place: "Whoever makes the law of Moses void, without any mercy, dies by two or three witnesses; how much more do you think those deserve worse punishments who have trampled the Son of God, considered the blood of the Testament polluted, and done injury to the Spirit of grace" (Heb. 10:28-29)! Behold what vengeance for the injury of the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the same place: "God the judge of all, and the Spirit of the just and perfect, and Jesus Christ the mediator of the New Testament" (Heb. 12:23). This testimony pertains to the Trinity, because the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are named here. Because the Holy Spirit is omnipotent, in Solomon: "The Holy Spirit, manifold, subtle, eloquent, secure, uncontaminated, having every power" (Wis. 7:22). And do you deny the omnipotent one? Because the Holy Spirit is judge, the Lord says: "If I go away, I will send him to you; and when he comes, he himself will convict the world of sin, of justice, and of judgment" (John 16:7-8). You see the judge, who also, if it must be said, avenges the Savior himself; and does anyone dare to subtract divinity from him? And what more shall I say about the divinity of the Holy Spirit? Whom David fears, saying: "Where shall I go, Lord, from your Spirit, or from your face where shall I flee" (Ps. 138:7)?

And to conclude, the Holy Spirit is so great and of such a kind that if anyone blasphemes against him, he will find him not relaxing his hold, neither in this life nor in the future. The Catholic Faith. It is impossible to express the ineffable substance or nature of the Divinity in human words: inconvertible, immutable, impassible, simple, uncompounded, indivisible, inaccessible light, inexplicable power, magnitude without end, glory that cannot be beheld, desirable goodness, ineffable beauty, which indeed touches and moves the affection of a pure mind, but cannot be indicated or explained. Therein are the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, a sole nature which is not created, the power of dominion, natural goodness. The Father is the beginning of all things, the cause of all, the root of the living: from whom proceeds the fountain of life, the power and the unchanged image of the invisible God, which is the Son begotten from the Father. The Word, or living reason; who always was, and was with God, and was God, not made from the Father before the ages, not later assumed or adopted as a son, not by possession or creation, but the creator and maker of all things: who is everything that the Father is; to whom the Father gave everything he has by begetting. And thus, where he who gave, gave by begetting; and he who received, received by being born; it was not that need was supplied, but that abundance itself was born. For he who received cannot be unequal to him who gave, because he also received by being born that he might be equal.

For the Son lacks nothing that the Father has, for he said: “All that the Father has is mine” (John 16:15). And because he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, not losing the form of God, in that same servant form he became obedient unto death, even death on the cross; in which he was made a little lower than the angels, so that he might remain equal in the form of God; for that form is not mutable. He who in heaven, to pure intellectual spirits, in the form of God and equal to God, as God offers an example; so that the same example might offer itself to the returning and even fallen man, who on account of the uncleanness of sins and the penalty of mortality could not see God: he emptied himself, not by losing his divinity, but by assuming our humanity; and taking the form of a servant, he came to us in this world, he who was in this world, because the world was made through him (John 1:10), so that he might become an example to those looking upward at God, an example to those looking downward in wonder at a man; an example to the healthy for perseverance, an example to the sick for recovery; an example to the dying for not fearing, an example to the dead for rising again: he himself holding the primacy in all things; so that since man ought to follow nothing but God for blessedness, and could not perceive God; by following God made man, he would at the same time follow both whom he could perceive and whom he ought to follow. Let us therefore love him, and cling to him, with the love poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

The Spirit is both life and life-giving light, and illuminating; good, and goodness; the right Spirit, the principal Spirit, who is Lord of all; sending apostles, separating ministers for himself, establishing temples for himself, inspiring where he wills, distributing the gifts of the Spirit as he wills. The Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of knowledge, counsel, fortitude, and fear of God: through whom the Father is known, and the Son is glorified. For it is not fitting that the Son should ever have been lacking to the Father, or the Spirit to the Son: for the Godhead would have been most greatly defrauded, and would be considered as it were inglorious and unworthy, if God had arrived at the fullness of perfection as if through repentance and ill-advised design. Let him who can grasp, grasp (Matthew 19:12): he who cannot yet grasp, let him pray that he may grasp, let him believe that he may grasp: because it is written: Unless you believe, you will not understand (Isaiah 7:9, according to the LXX).