Letter 159

159. To Eupaterius and his daughter

How great a gladness your Decorum's letter brought me you may surely guess from the very things you wrote. For what could be sweeter to a man who makes it his prayer always to be in converse with those who fear God, and to share in the gain that comes from them, than such letters, through which the knowledge of God is sought? For if Christ is our life, then in due order our speech too ought to be about Christ, and our thought, and every action, ought to hang upon His commandments, and our soul to be conformed to Him. I rejoice, then, to be questioned about such things, and I rejoice with those who ask. For us, then, to put it in a single word, the faith of the fathers who came together at Nicaea is preferred above all those later devised: the faith in which the Son is confessed to be of one essence with the Father, and to be of the same nature as the One who begot Him. For Light from Light, and God from God, and Good from Good, and all such things, were confessed by those holy men; and by us now, who pray to walk in their footsteps, the same is witnessed.

But since the question that has now risen up from those who are forever attempting innovations was passed over in silence by the men of old, because it was beyond dispute, and so was left undefined — I mean the question concerning the Holy Spirit — we add our word about this, in accordance with the sense of Scripture: that as we are baptized, so also we believe; and as we believe, so also we offer glory. Since, then, baptism has been given to us by the Saviour into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we offer a confession of faith in keeping with our baptism, and a giving of glory in keeping with our faith, glorifying the Holy Spirit together with the Father and the Son, being persuaded that He is not foreign to the divine nature. For that which is estranged in nature could not share in the same honours. But those who call the Holy Spirit a creature we pity, as falling, by such a word, into the unforgivable sin of the blasphemy against Him. For that the creation is distinct from the Godhead needs no argument for those who have been even a little trained in the Scriptures. For the creation is enslaved, but the Spirit sets free; the creation stands in need of life, but the Spirit is the giver of life; the creation needs teaching, but the Spirit is the teacher; the creation is sanctified, but the Spirit is the sanctifier. And whether you name angels, or archangels, or all the powers above the world, they receive their holiness through the Spirit; but the Spirit Himself has holiness by nature, not received by grace, but united to His being; whence also He has obtained, in a special manner, the title of the Holy. That which is, then, holy by nature, as the Father is holy by nature and the Son is holy by nature, we will not ourselves endure to separate and cut off from the divine and blessed Trinity, nor do we accept those who lightly number it with the creation.

Let this, as in a summary, be said as enough for your Reverence. For from small seeds you will cultivate the greater part of piety, the Holy Spirit working together with you. For give occasion to a wise man, and he will be wiser still. The fuller teaching we will defer to our meeting face to face, by which it is possible both to resolve the objections, and to set out more amply the testimonies from the Scriptures, and to confirm every sound pattern of the faith. For the present, grant pardon to my brevity. For I would not have written at all, had I not thought it the greater harm to deny the request altogether than to grant it imperfectly.