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Moreover the Word must also possess Spirit. For in fact even our
word is not destitute of spirit; but in our case the spirit is
something different from our essence. For there is an attraction and
movement of the air which is drawn in and poured forth that the body may
be sustained. And it is this which in the moment of utterance becomes
the articulate word, revealing in itself the force of the word. But
in the case of the divine nature, which is simple and uncompound, we
must confess in all piety that there exists a Spirit of God, for the
Word is not more imperfect than our own word. Now we cannot, in
piety, consider the Spirit to be something foreign that gains
admission into God from without, as is the case with compound natures
like us. Nay, just as, when we heard of the Word of God, we
considered it to be not without subsistence, nor the product of
learning, nor the mere utterance of voice, nor as passing into the air
and perishing, but as being essentially subsisting, endowed with free
volition, and energy, and omnipotence: so also, when we have learnt
about the Spirit of God, we contemplate it as the companion of the
Word and the revealer of His energy, and not as mere breath without
subsistence. For to conceive of the Spirit that dwells in God as
after the likeness of our own spirit, would be to drag down the
greatness of the divine nature to the lowest depths of degradation.
But we must contemplate it as an essential power, existing in its own
proper and peculiar subsistence, proceeding from the Father anti
resting in the Word, and shewing forth the Word, neither capable of
disjunction from God in Whom it exists, and the Word Whose
companion it is, nor poured forth to vanish into nothingness, but
being in subsistence in the likeness of the Word, endowed with life,
free volition, independent movement, energy, ever willing that which
is good, and having power to keep pace with the will in all its
decrees, having no beginning and no end. For never was the Father at
any time lacking in the Word, nor the Word in the Spirit.
Thus because of the unity in nature, the error of the Greeks in
holding that God is many, is utterly destroyed: and again by our
acceptance of the Word and the Spirit, the dogma of the Jews is
overthrown: and there remains of each party only what is profitable.
On the one hand of the Jewish idea we have the unity of God's
nature, anti on the other, of the Greek, we have the distinction in
subsistences and that only.
But should the Jew refuse to accept the Word and the Spirit, let
the divine Scripture confute him and curb his tongue. For concerning
the Word, the divine David says, For ever, O Lord, Thy Word
is settled in heaven. And again , He sent His Word and healed
them. But the word that is uttered is not sent, nor is it for ever
settled. And concerning the Spirit, the same David says, Thou
sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created. And again, By the
word of the Lord were the heavens made: and all the host of them by
the breath of His mouth. Job, too, says, The Spirit of God hath
made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. Now the
Spirit which is sent and makes and stablishes and conserves, is not
mere breath that dissolves, any more than the mouth of God is a bodily
member. For the conception of both must be such as harmonizes with the
Divine nature.
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