3. Here then all points but one are
satisfactorily and exactly defined, some for the correction of what had
been corrupted, some as a precaution against errors expected to
arise. The doctrine of the Spirit, however, is merely mentioned,
as needing no elaboration, because at the time of the Council no
question was mooted, and the opinion on this subject in the hearts of
the faithful was exposed to no attack. Little by little, however,
the growing poison-germs of impiety, first sown by Arius, the champion
of the heresy, and then by those who succeeded to his inheritance of
mischief, were nurtured to the plague of the Church, and the regular
development of the impiety issued in blasphemy against the Holy
Ghost. Under these circumstances we are under the necessity of
putting before the men who have no pity for themselves, and shut their
eyes to the inevitable threat directed by our Lord against blasphemers
of the Holy Ghost, their bounden duty. They must anathematize all
who call the Holy Ghost a creature, and all who so think; all who do
not confess that He is holy by nature, as the Father is holy by nature,
and the Son is holy by nature, and refuse Him His place in the blessed
divine nature. Our not separating Him from Father and Son is a
proof of our right mind, for we are bound to be baptized in the terms
we have received and to profess belief in the terms in which we are
baptized, and as we have professed belief in, so to give glory to
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and to hold aloof from the communion of
all who call Him creature, as from open blasphemers. One point
must be regarded as settled; and the remark is necessary because of our
slanderers; we do not speak of the Holy Ghost as unbegotten, for we
recognise one Unbegotten and one Origin of all things, cf. pp.
27 and 39, notes. the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ:
nor do we speak of the Holy Ghost as begotten, for by the tradition of
the faith we have been taught one Only-begotten: the Spirit of
truth we have been taught to proceed from the Father, and we confess
Him to be of God without creation. We are also bound to
anathematize all who speak of the Holy Ghost as
ministerial, cf.
De Sp. S. § 25, p. 17. On those who
described the Spirit as merely a ministering spirit, vide
Athan., Ad Serap. i. (λεγόντων
αὐτὸ μὴ
μόνον
κτίσμα, ἀλλὰ
καὶ τῶν
λειτουργικῶν
πνευμάτων
ἓν αὐτὸ
εἶναι). This new party arose
in the Delta about 362, and was first known as
“Tropici.” They were condemned at the synod held
at Alexandria on the return of Athanasius from his third
exile. Its Synodical Letter is the Tomus ad
Antiochenos. inasmuch as by
this term they degrade Him to the rank of a creature. For that
the ministering spirits are creatures we are told by Scripture in
the words “they are all ministering spirits sent forth to
minister.”
Heb. i. 14. But
because of men who make
universal confusion, and do not keep the doctrine of the Gospels, it
is necessary to add yet this further, that they are to be shunned,
as plainly hostile to true religion, who invert the order left us by
the Lord, and put the Son before the Father, and the Holy Spirit
before the Son. For we must keep unaltered and inviolable that
order which we have received from the very words of the Lord,
“Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost.”
Matt. xxviii.
14.