Against the Latins, that nothing should be added or subtracted from the Divine Confession of the Immaculate Christian Faith

Doctors say about honey that, despite its natural sweetness, it also has some bitterness and also has a cleansing property. Therefore, festering and intractable wounds are cleansed with diluted honey, especially those who are experienced in this, and it is also mixed with cleansing drinks with great benefit, since it receives a wonderful quality from the different flowers from which it is collected. Your short message that you wrote to me turned out to be similar to this, O my most honest and most amiable master Theodore. Being all delightful and saturated with spiritual sweetness, it not only delights the rational taste of the soul, but also secretly excites, and, like some bitterness, leads to enlightenment, that is, excites the mind, with all its negligence, to answers. Don’t you think it’s quite offensive, not to say shameful, for a person who, from a young age, has been imbued with the Orthodox dogmas of the pure and immaculate Orthodox faith, to openly say that he should not be engaged and carried away by such messages as Nikolaev’s? I am as far from enjoying them as I am from being satiated and delighted by deadly medicines. But I heard that many were surprised at the wisdom of that man, and that to Theodore, who had sent him some inquisitive questions and asked for solutions to them, he sent a very skillfully and very wisely composed word. I also wanted to be jealous of the bees, who fly among all the flowers, but do not collect honey from all of them. The main thing is because I heard about Theodore, famous in Orthodoxy and adorned with truly great intelligence, that he had already walked this road and wanted to be a spectator and listener, although not a student and silent praiser, like others. The fact that one remains silent about this for so long clearly proves that what is contained in the message is considered worthy of great praise, according to the well-known saying that the Nativity of Christ, as the first event, should be honored with silence. But enough has been said about this, for brevity in words is required everywhere. But you, my dear one, by raising me to object to the words contained in the said message, know that by doing so you are placing a certain burden on me. I say this not because Nikolaev’s explanations have depth - they are insignificant and weak, and like cobwebs - but because I do not have time to breathe freely, being completely occupied with the work of translating the psalter, and for this reason I would refuse to fulfill your request, but on the other hand, zeal for the truth excites my spirit, not giving rest so that lies do not rise above the truth, and let darkness not boast before light, and so that you and others will know that Maximus does not in the least adhere to the well-known theology of the God-bearing fathers, but, on the contrary, hates all heretical grandeur and the latest Latin innovations and idle talk and turns away from them. For this purpose, I will cheerfully and with great willingness set out for this feat, placing my hope in the Hero of God and the Savior Christ, the giver of reason, and, having been spiritually enlightened by the teachings of my fathers, I will try to disperse the hostile Egyptian darkness with the bright light of the apostolic truth. Darkness is truly tangible and deep darkness - everything that does not agree with the God-inspired Gospel and the teaching of other God-bearing fathers who spoke by the Holy Spirit, and therefore should be recognized and should be called a collection of tares, and not teaching. If our Lord Jesus Christ is light and truth and life, for it is said: “In Him is the life, and the life is the light of man, and the light shines in the darkness” (John 1:4-5), then it is obvious that all generally heretical false teachings that do not flow from the ever-flowing sources of rational Israel, from which the prophet was commanded to compose songs to the Lord of hosts, as it is said: “in the churches bless God, the Lord from the fountain of Israel” (Ps. 67:27), but boiling from muddy ditches, to the destruction and poisoning of those who drink from them, are tangible darkness, obvious lies and death. But it’s time for me to set about the destruction of the firmament, which, as the divine apostle says, is aimed at the knowledge of the Savior Christ, not trusting in chariots and horses, that is, not in false evidence, which is what the Aristotelian philosophers boast of, but “in the name of the Lord our God we will call,” as the blessed Psalmist sings. Those who rely on their chariots and horses experience a fall and contrition, “those,” he says, “sleep and fall”; and those who call “in the name of the Lord God” are preached to rise and correction: “but we,” he says, “have risen and been corrected” (Ps. 19:8-9). I will not speak against all of Nicholas’s wisdom - it is now impossible for me to fulfill this, as I said above, but only against those places of his where he is not afraid of the ever-present procession of the Divine Paraclete, very boldly to think and speak, about this my word will be, enlightened by the light of the Divine Paraclete. For this is the height of the Latin errors that separates us from them; their other teachings and wisdom are also harmful, and they are so far removed from the traditions and teachings of the God-bearing fathers of the seven councils that only God alone can correct them. Anyone can understand what has been said, not in any other place, but having been in the notorious Rome itself, where he sees the lawless actions of those who rise with pride and boast of holding apostolic places, there he will see all their outrages, worthy of all disgust. But the source and foundation of all evil is the innovation regarding the Holy Spirit, from which all other evil entered. And this is not surprising, O wise Theodore! For those who have lost the inspiration of the Paraclete are no longer able to theologize correctly or to compose rules of faith. How will those who deprive the Father of the ability of breathing receive the inspiration of the Spirit, as will be shown below. “The Spirit,” it is said, “breathes wherever it wants” (John. 3, 8); He wants only where the Father and the Son with Him are correctly theologized and glorified according to the revered traditions of the God-bearing fathers. For there is one will of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, just as there is one being and power, and there is no difference in the wills of the Holy Trinity. And since the word has reached this height, we should, in every way, in truth and love, heal the minds of those who are ill, having as our guide in testing the truth the common Physician and Savior, Jesus Christ, so that with the right word the word may be corrected. Having examined the abyss of Nicholas’s main interpretations, let us offer against them the pure dogmas of simple truth, and not the erroneous thoughts of geometric figures, from which those who guided them in showing the truth did not benefit; but with divinely inspired verbs and the purest paternal instructions we will illuminate the truth, how those who walk in the light should act. Let me first inform you that, often speaking to your face and saying: “You are not ashamed,” or: “You are speaking,” and: “You are not afraid, thinking like this,” I am not teaching and reproaching you, for this does not apply to you, the wise Theodore, but is said against Nicholas and his like-minded people. Therefore, before starting the analysis of the chapters, I consider it necessary to explain to those who speak contrary to the commandment God-bearing fathers, that the fathers forbid us to experience and explore that which is above us and above any angelic mind; let them know that we do not adhere to the commandments and traditions of our fathers for lack of words or incriminating evidence, but because we deeply honor those who taught us the incomprehensible mystery of the Holy Trinity. For we know for certain that it was not they who said this, but the Holy Spirit, as Blessed Cyril says in his letter to John, Patriarch of Antioch. Isn’t that what doctors usually do when they act against emerging illnesses? And they offer moderation in life, prescribed by previous teachers, and explain to the ailing person that if moderation is observed, he may have some hope of receiving healing, but otherwise he may come closer to death. When the illness intensifies, they arm themselves against it with fire, iron, and various medicines. Therefore, let no one reproach me, who imitates them, but on the contrary, let me, with all diligence and with full attention, accept the word - not as mine, but as said by those blessed men, for I proclaim their words. Also, let him not listen with the purpose of arguing, but, having banished from his mind all his wisdom and hostile disposition, let him listen to the word diligently and with love for the truth. I'll start like this. Let it be reliably known to all who hold a different teaching, who preside and live both in Rome itself and throughout Italy, and in the countries beyond the Alpine and Pyrenees mountains, even to Gadir, that we, who have bowed our necks under the yoke of the most honorable throne of the Apostolic Church of Constantinople, are so far from being disingenuous or daring to be new in the firm confession devoted to us the conciliar apostolic immaculate faith, how far we are from inventing deadly slander against our lives. We know, we know for sure, and we have learned from the divine scriptures that to rearrange or change anything even slightest in the teachings of faith is a great crime and a falling away from eternal life. And first of all, the witness of this is the Founder of our faith Himself and the Head of truth, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who, having begun the divine teaching to His disciples, offers as a strong and immovable foundation that with all diligence and great fear they should observe even His smallest commandments immutably and unchangeably. For he says in the Gospel of Matthew: “Whoever destroys one of these little commandments and teaches men this way, he will be called in the kingdom of heaven” and so on (Matthew 5:19); the word “opinion,” according to the interpretation of the divine Chrysostom, also means that “will be condemned.” If anyone dares to say that Jesus says this about the commandments of the law, since he said above that “one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law” and so on, then this is unfair, for the Savior Himself was the first to violate the commandment about the Sabbath, for which He was accused by the Pharisees, who said: “This man is not of God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But even after Him, His disciples, of whom the first was Blessed Paul, were entirely directed against all the commandments of the law, as serving as a foreshadowing of the future, and they ruined them all, as is related in the holy book of the Acts of the Apostles and in other divinely inspired books. From this it is clear that the Savior said this about the commandments of the new covenant; why, completing that godly teaching, he again confirms the disciples with the following commandment, saying: “Everyone who hears these words of mine,” which I have now spoken to you, “and I will make him like a wise man,” and so on until the end (Matthew 7:24-26). Not only does the Savior command us by this to observe His divine teaching, but also in the Gospel of John, more than once, but repeatedly, he does this with great care, as in the following parable, saying: “Do not enter through the doors into the sheepfold, but by stealing elsewhere, that thief is also a thief” (John 10:1). Who is this door if not Himself who says: “I am the Door to the sheep?” And there he says about Himself that He “when He has given birth to His sheep, He walks before them, and the sheep walk on Him, as His voice leads; but they do not follow a stranger, but flee from him, because they do not know the strange voice” (John 10:4–5, 9); also: “Be ye in My love,” and, teaching how to abide in it, he says: “If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love” (John 15:9–10). And again: “If you continue in My word, you will truly be My disciples, and you will understand the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). Isn’t it clear after this that the Latins are lying, claiming that they did not deviate at all from the Divine Gospel, when such formidable and lofty rules were taught by Christ to the disciples with His living voice, and then, several years after His ascension to heaven, by blessed John, on the island of Patmos, finally sealed by the Holy Spirit - they are not afraid to change, and by adding someone else’s voice to the sacred confession faith, they ruined it? How can they boast that they are gathered together with Christ, when they do not preserve His teaching? Shouldn't they be recognized as thieves and robbers, as those who do not enter the sheepfold through the gospel door? Or how will they be freed from eternal torment by the truth, when they do not obey the gospel truth, witnessed and approved by so many and such great God-bearing fathers for so many years? How can they not be separated from the love of Christ, when they do not want to listen to His theology about the Holy Spirit, but, being carried away by the corrupted false thoughts of the wisdom of this world that creep on the earth, in which they exercise, the dignity of the Paraclete, emanating from the One Father, is very madly, not to say impiously, determined by two principles, not knowing that as the Only Begotten from the One Father and One is born by birth, and monogenuity is His peculiarity, so the Holy Spirit, being equal in everything to the Father and the Son, proceeds alone from the One Father, and therefore His procession is recognized as one-originating, which constitutes His peculiarity, peculiar to Him. But we will talk about this later. Now let us offer the commandments of God-bearing men, as promised. And first of all, the divine Paul, having awakened from the darkness of the Jews, and at the same time from the fury, and having drunk the entire life-giving cup of the True Vine, and having known in the most certain way the will of the Savior, in his letter to Kolossai commands: “Beware, lest anyone deceive you with philosophy and vain flattery, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col. 2, 8); Also, Galatov, wanting to confirm, says: “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, brings you the good news, let him be anathema. As I foretold, and now I say again, if anyone preaches the gospel to you any more than he has already eaten, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8-9). Look, most honest man, how blessed Paul calls revered philosophy vain flattery, stealing the minds of ordinary people, as originating from human traditions, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ. Is it not this that now guides the Latin peoples, perverting the apostolic truth? Go mentally to the Italian schools, and you will see there flowing, like drowning streams, the teachings of mainly Aristotle and Plato and the like. You will see that no dogma is considered among them unless it is confirmed by Aristotelian syllogisms. And if he does not agree with their science, then either they reject him as worthless, or they reject in him that in which he does not agree with their science and change him to please the Aristotelian teaching, and then they defend him as the truest. And how can I explain to you all the present lawlessness of the Latins, who, as the Apostle says, are zealously seduced by philosophical flattery about the immortality of the soul, about the future enjoyment of the righteous and about the state of the faithful after departing from this life: in all this they are mistaken, since they are guided primarily by external dialectical knowledge, and not by the internal church philosophy given by God. It is good, indeed, to know the revered external science, but it is only suitable for acquiring the skill of speaking well and for the sophistication and development of the mind, and not for mastering divine dogmas and spiritual reasoning. For this is above all thought and above all contemplation of what exists and what does not exist; it is known and seen only by faith alone; he runs away from all verbal science, being above it. Knowing this well, Blessed John Chrysostom speaks thus in his sermon on the seraphim, where he explains the vision of the holy prophet Isaiah. His golden words about this are as follows: “What he saw, he said about it, but in what way, he kept silent. I accept what was said and do not test what is silent to the subtleties. I understand what is open, and do not inquire into what is hidden: that is why it was hidden. Reading the Scriptures is a golden frame, a golden warp, and a golden weft. I will not weave a cobweb, I know the weakness of my thoughts. Do not, he says, change the eternal limits established by the fathers. It’s not safe to push these limits: so how can we change what God has decreed for us?” Oh, what an inscrutable reverence of this blessed Father, Mr. Theodore! Woe to our impudent shamelessness, because of which we dare to dare to attempt divine mysteries, which are completely incomprehensible to the very angels! This one, being such and so great in virtue, did not dare to contemplate or say more than how worthy the slave was, but was satisfied with what the prophet said, belittling and likening his thoughts to cobwebs. We, being much further from the grace and wisdom given to him from heaven than from his incomparable life and angelic holiness, on the contrary, are carried away for the most part by the dust of passions and clinging, like dumb cattle, to vile voluptuousness, having a small spark of external controversy, and not philosophy, and with this some of us, getting excited, jumped up like wild ones animals, and the robe of the Church, woven from the highest theology, we pitifully tear apart with dialectical violence and sophisms and argue in vain, trying to show people the sacred sacraments taught, which are completely ineffable and incomprehensible and known only to the One Holy Trinity. And while St. John Chrysostom says that “it is not safe to move the limits; and how can we change what God has decreed for us?” - you, Nicholas, were not afraid, attempting to destroy such a great and strong foundation of the entire divine house of our immaculate faith, first established by God, and then compiled and approved by so many and so great divine fathers, with sophistical vile stretches! Isn't this obvious frenzy and frenzy of the mind? But bickering, as unnecessary and not serving for creation, is something that should be abandoned; let the intelligible word, as the most edifying for the listener, which should be the goal of all preachers of truth, act. This is what the divine Paul affirms. The time is now to listen to the wisest Dionysius, nicknamed the Areopagite, what he commands us about this, and how much he allows us to experience about the Divine Hypostases. He says: “let us hold on to what God has shown us in the divine scriptures, “for every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17); nevertheless, everything moved and originating from the Father, coming to us with grace, again, like a connecting force, turns to the unity of the Source-Father and God-seeing simplicity; for everything is from Him and in Him, as the sacred word says." Here he, such and so great, says: “We will hold, that is, we will firmly preserve what was divinely revealed to us by the Holy Trinity,” but you, a man, are not afraid to change this, and you are dragging others into the same pit. But let us also listen to how he teaches us to philosophize about the essential Divinity. He says that “the supernatural birth of God is not shared with one another. one source of the supremely essential Divinity is the Father; the Son is not the Father and the Father is not the Son.” Obviously, this also applies to the Holy Spirit. For if he had understood that the Son is the source of the Spirit, he would not have said that the Father alone is the source; for that which is unique does not admit of another. And again he says that “the source of Divinity is the Father, while the Son and the Spirit are the birth of God, so to speak, branches of the birth of God, like flowers and supernatural lights, as we received from sacred words.” What could be brighter and more reliable than this testimony? For the secret teacher of Saint Dionysius about the hidden and ineffable, supremely essential Divinity was Paul. He clearly says that in the supernatural birth of God, one does not participate in the other, that is, it does not participate in the peculiarity that is characteristic of each of the God-originating Hypostases, such as: the non-birth of the Father, the birth of the Son and the procession of the Holy Spirit. The Latins immediately reject all this veneration, not being ashamed to assert that these features of the Hypostases are subject to change, and thus clearly contradict the truth, recognizing the Son, together with the Father, as the author of the procession of the Holy Spirit. What else do they want to prove by this, if not that the peculiarity of the Father, by the origin of the Spirit from Him, passes to the Son, as will be shown later? Dionysius further says: one source of the supernatural Deity is the Father; You are not ashamed to acknowledge the Son as the source of Divinity! If we accept your opinion, then how will the words of Dionysius remain valid, who called the Son and the Spirit branches and flowers, Which both grew from the root-Father? The branch is the Son, the branch and the Holy Spirit; also, color is the Son, color is the Holy Spirit. He did not say: “branches and flowers,” in the singular, but “branches and flowers,” in the plural, to show that They do not grow from each other, but that from the One Father, as from a root, Both equally grow. Where did you receive it from, or from what other Paul did you hear the piety that you now preach, O man? He (Dionysius) says: “we will hold”; and do you claim that you and the Pope have the power to move the paternal boundaries and change them as you want? Who gave you this power? You are entrusted with promoting the salvation of people like you, and not as you would like, but according to the saving teaching of the sacred Gospels and according to the apostolic and paternal tradition, so that in this way you too can hear: “Blessed are you Simon, var Jonah, for flesh and blood has not been revealed to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17). If you do otherwise, then be careful not to hear that terrible voice: Depart from Me, Satan, “for you do not think the things of God, but the things of men” (Mark 8:33). For this reason, you and the keys have accepted the meaning of invisible treasures, which you must open in secret and show in the way that the Lord of the house put them in the apostolic arks with charters and ink and life-giving words, and not in such a way as to wear out something alien, and defend this with dialectical strains and similes, and not with spiritual enlightenment and confession of the faith. And that we should not dare to philosophize or say anything other than what is taught to us by the Holy Scriptures, this is clearly shown by Saint Dionysius, saying: “It is not at all permissible for us to speak or think about the supernatural Divinity, except for what is revealed to us by God in the Holy Scriptures." Notice here, O wondrous Theodore, the reverence of Saint Dionysius! It is not permissible, he said, not only to speak, but even to think Nicholas and his accomplices fell into such insolence that they boast of proving the hidden and unformable supernatural Deity with geometric figures, besides Scripture. What else could be the most hidden, if not the birth of the Only Begotten from the Father and the procession of the Paraclete, according to Paul, the Paraclete tests: “The Spirit,” says, “ tests the depths of God" (1 Cor. 2:10). To what supernatural power of high reason and comprehending dignity do we assert ourselves, without fear of plunging ourselves into that depth of divine concealment, which is not yet subject to understanding and testing, which is covered in darkness, according to the word of the divine David: “and cover your darkness” (Ps. 17:12) - we, who cannot even understand our own nature, that is, in what way the rational is united with the sensual, or in what is their connection and interaction? Isn’t this worthy of great laughter and isn’t this obvious madness? Is it not enough for you, O man, recognizing your weakness, to preserve what has been tested by so many holy men and for so many favorable times? And Paul, who was caught up to the third heaven and heard unspeakable verbs, cries out, saying: “In part we understand and in part we prophesy” (1 Cor. 13:9). That one is partly, and you are completely! For to argue through cunning and human intentions to show what is hidden about the Divine - what is His nature and way of being - what else does it mean if not that everything is already understood by them? But let us return with our word to where we departed from, and listen to the other divine fathers, what they command us regarding keeping the sacred confession of faith intact and immovable, without adding anything or subtracting anything. Under Theodosius the Younger, the Holy Third Ecumenical Council was assembled in Ephesus, which excommunicated the evil Nestorius from the society of the faithful. The head of this Council was the Most Serene Cyril, who was also the locum tenens of the Most Blessed Celestine, Pope of Rome. To this sacred Council, the most blessed Celestine, in his epistle, which to this day has been preserved with us intact by the grace of Christ, writes about the divine and sacred confession of faith as follows: “if anyone, having subtracted something or added to the confession of faith, was anathematized, then this was done correctly; for what was handed down to us with completeness and clarity by the Holy Fathers does not tolerate either addition or subtractions We read in our books that one should neither add nor subtract, and that those who add or subtract are subject to great torment. Therefore, we prepare both fire and iron for such people, since otherwise they cannot be corrected.” Do you hear, Nicholas, that the dogmas taught to us by those blessed fathers in the sacred confession of faith were taught with completeness and clarity, that is, most perfect and brightest, and as far as it was possible for them to comprehend and for us to accommodate, they were so clearly and purely spoken by them, and do not require any more theological explanation; on the contrary, those who dare to dare to do anything of the kind are subject to anathema, that is, to change, or add, or subtract, and they are threatened with fire and iron, that is, with a curse, excommunication and cutting off from the society of the faithful. According to this, Blessed Cyril speaks, as if on behalf of his sacred council, in one of his epistles, which he sent to John, Patriarch of Antioch, and in which he justifies himself against the slander of Theodoret, bishop of the city of Cyrus, against him, as if he adheres to the dogma that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son eternally and essentially. Answering this, he says this: “In no way,” he says, “we do not allow changes in the faith handed down to us by our fathers, that is, in the confession of our faith, and we do not allow ourselves or others to change even one word from what is laid down in it, or to violate a syllable, remembering the one who says: “Do not change the limit of the eternal things that your fathers set” (Prov. 22:28); for it was not they who said this, but the Spirit of God the Father, who proceeds from Him and who is not alien to the Son in essence.” Do you hear that not only the meaning, but also the word and syllable, he forbids changing, and does not allow anyone to violate it, either to himself or to others, saying this on behalf of the entire council - it was an ecumenical council - and they were given this prohibition and terrible curses were expressed, which are contained in the book of acts of the council. If they don’t allow themselves, how can they allow you? In addition, it should be noted, the wisest Theodore, that the Patriarch of Antioch John and the eastern bishops who were with him, having received such a message, were convinced of the Orthodoxy of Cyril, reconciled with him and entered into agreement, but before that they were separated, as Theodoret writes about this, who says that the bishops, having read the message and carefully examined its meaning, found everything said in it to agree, and that it flaunts its origin from the truth of the Gospel, and that our Lord Jesus Christ is preached in it as perfect God and perfect Man, but the Holy Spirit does not have existence from the Son or through the Son, but proceeds from the Father, and He is called His own to the Son, as being of one essence with Him. What could be clearer and more reliable than this testimony against Latin rebellion? The bishops accused Blessed Cyril of holding to the dogma that the Spirit comes from the Son and through the Son has an eternal being; he, rejecting this accusation, clearly justifies himself by the fact that he does not philosophize, but recognizes Him as coming from the Father, according to the tradition of the Holy Scriptures, and that He also has existence from the Son, this is alien in the sense of essence, that is, that He is of the same essence and nature, but not in the way of being, that is, origin. The bishops, having accepted and praised these expressions, say through Theodoret that the Holy Spirit does not have existence from the Son or through the Son, but comes from the Father, and is called the Son, as one in essence with Him. This is how clear from here is the understanding of Blessed Cyril that he had about the procession of the Holy Spirit! The Latins strive to prove the opposite of what the saints understood, and are not ashamed to resist such a clear truth. So, the understanding of Blessed Cyril is this!.. Let us also hear what the Fourth Ecumenical Council, which met in Chalcedon under King Marcian, commanded about sacred confession, against Eutyches and Dioscorus. This cathedral was decorated and approved by His Beatitude Leo, Pope of Rome, by his holy governors Paskhazin, Lucentius and Bonifatius. After reading the sacred confession of faith compiled by the First and Second Councils, and approved by the Third, he said: “This Holy Ecumenical Council commands that no one be allowed to pronounce, or write, or compose, or teach, or prove another faith. And those who dare to write or compose a different faith, or pronounce it, if they are bishops or clergy, let them be deprived: bishops - bishoprics, and clergymen - the title of clergy; if they are simple, let them be damned.” Also, and in the same expressions, the other councils command: the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh, which clearly cries out, saying: “We observe the laws of the Church, we keep the limits of our fathers, we curse those who add anything or subtract from the teachings of the Church.” And again: “If anyone rejects all church tradition, written or unwritten, anathema." What will the opponents of the truth say against this? How can they free themselves from the anathema of so many and so great blessed fathers, even if they endlessly boasted about Rome and its majesty? After all, greatness and power do not depend on cities or apostolic thrones, but on right dogmas, divine life and paternal teaching the right faith is governed and recognized. And we will not call a doctor, while we have a sound mind, someone who is dressed only externally in doctor’s clothes, and does not have the doctor’s knowledge corresponding to the attire. But whoever knows how to act with reliable knowledge in accordance with medical science, according to the devotion of the wisest doctors before, we recognize him as a doctor and call him to heal ailments, if we care about our health. But let us also listen to what Blessed John of Damascus commands us about this. He says this: "Everything that was taught to us by the law, and by the prophets, and by the gospel, let us study and preserve honestly, and we will not seek anything else. For God, being good and the giver of every good, revealed what we needed to know, but what we could not contain, he kept silent about. Let us love what He has taught us, and let us abide in it, without transgressing eternal limits and without transgressing divine tradition." For whoever rejects anything small or great divine rejects the whole law and is revered along with its transgressors.” So this blessed and glorious enlightener of the universe, the church nightingale, the sweet-sung organ of the Holy Spirit, says: we accept everything and study and preserve it honestly, and why do we not study or test anything? satisfied, that is, let us rest in this, as established by God. And if we do not want to show great honor to this, then at least we will honor it, just as we honor the commandments of earthly kings, and without testing we will maintain this, just like that. But the Romans remain deaf to this, like a deaf asp covering its ears, and do not want to accept the goals, but, once puffed up with arrogance and empty opinion, they reject everything that does not fit the cunning dialectical arguments with great contempt, as worthless. But more on that later; Now let us consider what relates to our subject. Under Basil, King of Constantinople, and under the Most Holy Patriarch Photius, when the Patriarchal helmsman was ruled by Most Holy John, the Pope of Rome, adorned with all Orthodoxy and the honesty of the Gospel life, by order of the Tsar and the holy patriarchs, an Ecumenical Council was convened in Constantinople to confirm the holy Seventh Council and to overthrow the newly emerged and exalted Latin heresy, which, like a strong storm, troubled the Holy Church of God. At this council, his deputies, Paul and Eugene, divine bishops, and the third presbyter and cardinal Peter were sent from the Holy Pope John. This sacred council, after the approval of the Seventh Council, sufficiently exposed the Latin heresy, and anathematized those who defended it, making such a determination against those who dared to change something in the confession of faith. “If anyone, he says, besides this sacred confession of faith, dares to write something else, or add, or subtract, and dares to call it a conciliar commandment, let him be condemned and rejected from all Christian society." The Divine Holy Council declared such excommunication against that lawlessness. About this, the most blessed Pope John rejoiced, being pleased with this, and wrote to His Holiness Patriarch Photius more extensively and clearly, completely rejecting the addition to the sacred symbol of faith. He says: “Your brotherhood knows well that when the one who was sent shortly before came to us and asked us about the holy confession of faith, he found us keeping it intact, as it was first taught to us, and that we do not add or subtract anything, knowing for sure that the most severe condemnation awaits those who dare to do so. Therefore, we again explain to your holiness that regarding the well-known wisdom, regarding which temptations occurred in the churches of God, we not only do not say this, but we also consider those who previously dared to do this without permission to be criminals of God’s words and perverters of the theology of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Fathers, who, having gathered at councils, taught the holy confession of faith. We consider those criminals on a par with Judas, since they dared to do the same thing as he did, betraying to death not the Lord’s Body, but the faithful, who are members of His Body, separating and dividing them from each other and thus giving over to eternal death, and especially themselves, as the named disciple acted unrighteously.” This is how clearly that blessed Father showed with these short words that this heresy is hated and rejected, so that he compares with Judas those who invented it and who after them support it. What can opponents say against this again? Or do they also stop their ears against this, like a deaf adder, and do not accept reproof? All this was not said and done yesterday or yesterday, and not in a corner or in a dark place; They do not dare to say this if they reason sensibly and care about the truth. Has not more than six hundred years passed since this was written and done? Was it not in ancient Rome and in the then reigning city itself, before the autocrats and bishops and teachers, that all this was accomplished, when not only in divinely inspired philosophy, but also in external sciences, both named most glorious cities flourished to perfection, but both the priestly and civil ranks shone abundantly with great holiness, and chaste life, and spiritual meekness. But the Most Reverend Pope Adrian, who was after John, as the Most Reverend Photius says, according to the accepted ancient custom, sent Photius a conciliar letter in which he also preaches piety and theologizes the Spirit as coming from the Father. But why talk a lot when we can stop the mouths of those who oppose the truth - with what Blessed Leo, Pope of Rome, did? This blessed Pope Leo, when he saw that this new-found heresy was corrupting the Holy Great Church entrusted to him, then, in addition to many other measures he took to exterminate this heretical disease, he came up with such a remedy: he sent conciliar messages to all the regions and countries subordinate to him, commanding the holy Churches of God everywhere to proclaim the confession of the holy faith at the Divine Liturgy not in Latin adverb, but in Greek, without the addition “and from the Son”, thereby achieving two certain goals: firstly, when singing the confession of faith in Greek speech, which is more suitable for expressing concepts, it is more convenient for the multitude of believers subordinate to him to avoid the abyss of heresy without harm; secondly, the union of love that existed from the beginning with the Eastern Church, which had already begun to be violated due to the evil will of those who wanted to be heretical, was renewed in this way. Also, by this he showed everyone what honor and what respect the Holy Great Apostolic Church of Constantinople and the other eastern holy Churches of God, such as Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, should enjoy among everyone. So these blessed, truly, disciples of the meek Jesus knew how to love one another and exalt one another with honor in simplicity of heart and in a spirit of meekness. And this was not the only thing that blessed Leo did, as Saint Photius narrates, but having found in the church sacristy of the Cathedral of the Holy Apostles, preserved from ancient times, when piety flourished, two shields, on which was written in Greek the sacred confession of the immaculate faith, without the addition “and from the Son,” he took out these shields and ordered everyone to show and read before the entire multitude of the Roman people, as if another Moses, who received the God-written tablets from God and showed them to those who disobeyed, in order, at least in this way, to force them to put aside the hardness of their hearts and accept love. “But into an evil soul,” said the wise Solomon, “wisdom will not enter” (Wis. 1:4); so they, having once swallowed the street of arrogance and conceit, which the evil hunter threw to their destruction, remained unhealed and uncorrected. But let them go their own way; We, with some small arguments, have given sufficient instructions to those who listen to the divine scriptures, in the simplicity of sound faith, with the fear of God and all the truth, we have testified to them that it does not follow from the confession of faith, neither small nor great, nor a speech, nor a syllable from what is laid down there, to be moved or changed, but that everything must be preserved intact with all one’s strength and with all attention, like the apple of one’s eye, so that not to expose yourself to the anathema of so many and so great holy fathers. With this we end the first part of this word, which your Lordship will accept and read. And if you find in it anything said well, then attribute it to the Giver of all good things - God, by whose grace we are strengthened, we will soon send the rest of this word, where we will, as far as God helps, denounce the heads of Nikolaev, which Nikolai Nemchin compiled against the correct dogma of the All-Holy Spirit, as we promised you. Be healthy! “The beginning of Your words is truth, and the whole destiny of Your righteousness endures forever” (Ps. 119:160), cried the Godfather David, sanctified in his mind by the word of the Comforter. And how can the destinies of righteousness not be and not be called true, when God lays down the law and commands them to us? And if the teaching contained in them about Him and about everything is true, and we, by preserving it, can receive eternal life, then the Latins should also, if they do not consider it fair to show greater faith and greater honor to the divinely inspired words of the divine gospels than they have to the sayings of the sage Aristotle, whom they highly reverence, then at least they would honor the divine words of the Savior with equal honor, and as a teaching They consider their sage immutable, and so the words of the Lord of all should be kept pure and uncorrupted. And just as they are accustomed to calling every position and doctrine invented besides Aristotle’s teachings false and deceptive, so he who fearlessly teaches contrary to the sayings of the Lord and the institutions of the blessed fathers, especially in the matter of piety and confession of the Orthodox faith, they should consider and call a heretic and flatterer. Now they are so distraught that they not only consider themselves to have the power to change the sayings of the Master, but are also not afraid to lie against the Evangelist John, and, being proudly daring to do everything, they falsely say that blessed John with a special intention said that the Spirit proceeds solely from the Father - in order to assure the apostles the right to philosophize about the Father, whom they did not yet know for certain. They do not know, the accursed ones, that the holy gospel of John was written many years after the descent of the Comforter upon the blessed apostles, when they were all equally, according to the acceptability of human nature, richly enriched in the knowledge of the ineffable mysteries of God, according to the openness of the Holy Spirit, after which they all equally magnified the Most High and throughout the entire universe they clearly and purely preached Him, and not in secret or fortune-telling, not like the Jews through prototypes. To those, as it should have been, the greatness of God was preached through shadows and fortune-telling due to the youth of the listeners and their infantile dispensation; here the Holy Trinity is preached clearly and purely, without fortune telling. Now the Lord says: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father”; also: “I am in the Father, and the Father in Me” (John 14:9-10). Also about the Holy Spirit, many of the Lord’s words explain and show Him to be God, equal in everything and consubstantial with the Father and the Son. But the Latins, having been asked by the Orthodox why they came up with the addition “and from the Son,” say that they prudently do this in order to show that the Son is equal to the Father in everything and is omnipotent. This is how the Latins respond indifferently and senselessly. And they do not understand that it is possible to prudently draw up some kind of rule and teaching about this, regarding which conciliar divine dogmas were not first established, or where this prudence does not relate to the most important subject of faith, and does not harm the divinely inspired teaching about divine dogmas and apostolic commands. A reliable witness to this is Blessed Cyril, who at the third holy council approved the sacred statement of faith with the strictest laws, among which he says this: “If anyone changes anything from the holy and divine dogmas of the fathers, then this should not be called foresight, but a crime and a departure from dogma, and wickedness against God.” Blessed Chrysostom, wanting to instill in us the greatest fear regarding divine words, says: “As on a royal coin, if someone destroys even a small part of the royal image, then the entire coin becomes counterfeit, so in true faith: whoever changes the slightest thing in it damages it all.” Following this, the divine Isidore of Pelusiot says: “Those who dare to take away or add anything to the inspired words suffer from one of two things: either they do not believe that the Holy Scripture was spoken by the Holy Spirit, and they are infidels; or they consider themselves wiser than the Holy Spirit, and this means nothing more than that they are possessed.” Therefore, we should be against these, called by the blessed father demoniac and unfaithful, do not say a word; for what benefit can anyone ever gain from such? But so that a lie could not boast against the truth, I found it necessary, O wise Theodore, to rise up with the help of God to destroy the chapters of St. Nicholas, in which he expressed his wickedness against the truth, and which I will try to expose with the help of God with the words of true love, and not through deceit, as he turns out to be doing everywhere, perverting with lies the external, rather madness, and not the wisdom of this passing age - pure and immaculate divinely inspired teaching. Since Nicholas posits, as it were, two foundations of his theology - the double teaching of the Holy Spirit, which was before the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles on the day of Holy Pentecost, and this strengthens to convince those listening simply to the divine scripture that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally according to the Hypostasis from the Son, then we should begin from here, and then expose other foundations that the Latins falsely invented on their own against the apostolic truth. You will not find this teaching in any of the ancient theologians and teachers, whose teachings spread from end to end of the universe, no matter how much you search, but you will find, on the contrary, that everyone contradicts this and, as alien, rejects it. I am very surprised that Nikolai, being intelligent, as I heard, and skilled in verbal sciences, does not understand that he is creating his house on such small and movable foundations. I call them small not because of their essence and not because of their dignity, no, but because of the intelligence of those who planned to erect a huge tower on them, equal in importance to the Tower of Babel. Who, having read at least once the interpretation of the holy fathers on the Gospel, will not clearly understand that both before the saving sufferings, the gifts and power the Savior taught to His holy disciples, and after the resurrection, the grace of the Spirit inspired by him (John 20:22), there were private gifts, together with the pre-betrothal of the most perfect grace of the Comforter, which had to descend upon them, as well as watchful providence from afar provided by God for the rejection and destruction of the heresy that would subsequently arise, recognizing the Holy Spirit as created and alien to the Divinity of the Father and the Son. So, the gifts given to them then were private gifts, and this is clear from what the Lord said in one place: “Behold, I give you power to tread on the serpent and on the scorpion and on all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19); and again: “heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons” (Matthew 10:8); and in another place: “Receive the Holy Spirit: if you forgive their sins, their sins will be forgiven” (John 20:22-23), and so on. These are spiritual gifts that contain the power to forgive sins, to cast out demons and to heal illnesses. And that these were private gifts that flowed from the fullness of the Savior and acted at a certain time, and not a significant emission of the Spirit from the Son, as the Latins want to prove, is clear from many circumstances, and especially from the fact that it is not visible that they (before the final influx of the Holy Spirit) forgave anyone’s sins, but on the contrary, they ran and hid, for the sake of the fear of the Jews, for they were not yet completely endowed with power from above, which is why some turned to fishing, not for long forgetting the commands of the Savior. After the descent of the Paraclete, nothing like this happened to them, but having been clothed with His completely irresistible power, they boldly rushed into the whole universe, like lions convinced of strength, or like winged eagles. How can one say, or at least once think, that the gift of the Spirit, given or inspired at that time, serves as proof that the Holy Spirit proceeds essentially from the Son, that is, hypostatically? Those who are wise in this way, of necessity, should assume one of two things: either that then the disciples received the Spirit halfway, or completely and perfectly. Both, not only to say, but also to think, are equally ungodly, for the Holy Spirit, both in essence and in power, is always inseparable in Himself and equivalent, as the true God and equal in everything to the Father and the Son, except in property. To this they will turn out to be wise and something even more inappropriate. If they believe that the essence of the Spirit was then given to the disciples by a sensual breath, and not the power to perform miracles, then they, without realizing it, recognize the Spirit as subject to outline, since He poured out through the sensual, bodily lips of the incarnate God the Word, as if through some kind of pipe. What will be more evil than this wisdom, Mr. Theodore? For it is clear that everything that is subject to outline has a beginning and is subject to time, and differs in nothing, or very little, from ministering spirits. And will not the Macedonian heresy arise again if we accept that the Spirit that was breathed on the disciples at that time was not some spiritual gift imparted spiritually from the fullness of Jesus, but a hypostatic procession subject to outline, as the Latins philosophize? About this, the divine John Chrysostom, in the 87th conversation, interprets the Holy Gospel of John as follows: “Some say that by breathing Christ did not communicate the Spirit to the disciples, but only made them capable of receiving Him. After all, if Daniel was horrified when he saw the angel, then what would not the disciples have experienced if they had accepted this ineffable grace without being prepared for it in advance? Therefore, he says, Christ did not say: you have received the Holy Spirit, but - receive. The one who says that they then received some power and spiritual grace, but not so much as to raise the dead and create powers, but only to forgive sins, for the gifts of the Spirit are different, will not be at all mistaken; That’s why he added: “If you forgive their sins, their sins will be forgiven,” showing by this what kind of gift He gives them. Then, after forty days, they received the power to work miracles; and therefore he says: You will receive the power that the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses. They became witnesses after they received the fiery grace of the Spirit and manifold gifts.” This is what the divine Chrysostom says about the power imparted then by a breath of power, following in this the divine Paul, who says: “The divisions of gifts are, and the same is the Spirit; and the division of services is the essence, and so is the Lord” (1 Cor. 12:4-5) and so on. Nicholas further says that if the Son had the Spirit in Himself, He would not have given Him; if, as one who has Him essentially, he gives it to those who are worthy, it means that he also gives Him away eternally. Against this we will answer this way: the Son has in Himself the whole Spirit, but in the sense of the unity of being and nature, and not as the cause of the hypostatic procession. For this property belongs to the Father alone. According to the thoughts of all theologians in general, the whole Father is in all the Son, and the whole Son is in the Father; but it does not follow from this that the Father is born from the Son, since He is wholly in Him. Likewise, the entire Son is essentially in the Spirit; but it does not follow from this that He is born of the Spirit, which we will never allow ourselves to say as long as we have the right wisdom. If it is wicked to admit such concepts about the Father and the Son only because They are essentially in each other, then it is also wicked and blasphemous to think about the Spirit, that He also comes from the Son because the Son has all of Him in Himself. In addition, let us ask Nicholas about the former descent of the Holy Spirit into Penticostia, let him answer, if he can, in truth and without unnecessary disputes, as he understands: did the Lord receive the very essence of the Paraclete from the Father and pour it out on the holy disciples, or something else belonging to the Paraclete? If he says that He accepted the being, then see how this concept is not pious, for the being is inseparable, since it is one in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit, and it is not poured out. It remains, therefore, to say that the Son, with the permission of the Father, poured out the gift of spiritual gifts on the sacred disciples through the autocratic coming of the Holy Spirit. Proof of this is the appearance of tongues, which signified the division not of the being, but of the gift. The Son does not receive from Himself, but from the Father, as blessed Peter says in Acts: “and the promise of the Holy Spirit was received from the Father, this outpouring, which you now see” (Acts 2:33). Hear the difference in expressions: having accepted, he speaks, pours out, and does not emit. The concept of pouring out is very different from the concept of emitting. The word "to give forth" shows the origin of the being according to hypostasis, just as "to be born" in relation to the hypostasis of the Son; and to be poured out, and sent, and flow out, and the like, serves as an indication of the actions of the Paraclete and the gift. The irrefutable witness of this is the very author of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, our Lord Jesus Christ, who established the difference between all this, and He attributed the emission of the Spirit to one Father in particular, as the only source of Divinity for those who exist from Him, as Saint Dionysius says. “The Spirit of truth,” says the Lord, “comes from the Father” (John 15:26); and he appropriated that to give and send to himself and to the Father: “I will ask the Father,” he says, “and he will give you another Comforter” (John 14:16). And again: “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, Him the Father will send in My name” (John 14:26). He does not say here about Himself that He will send Him away, just as where He says: “When the Comforter comes, Him I will send” (John 15:26). Notice the difference between “emitting” and “sending”, and how criminal it is to confuse the two. For when it was necessary to teach theology about the hypostatic procession of the Holy Spirit, then the Savior deigned to reveal this to us with the words: “Who proceeds from the Father,” speaking in the present tense and demonstrating by this that He eternally proceeds from the Father; and where he shows the giving of gifts, which occurs through the good will of the Father and the Son, he no longer uses the expression “to give out,” and speaks not in the present tense, but in the future: “he will later” and “will give,” since the message happens at certain times, for the confirmation and sanctification of those worthy of such grace. And while the Savior knows and establishes the difference between the procession and the message, Nicholas and his like-minded people are not ashamed to say that there is no difference between the procession and the message, and that these expressions are identical. Just as the hypostasis of the Spirit is not sent by the Son, so His Divinity is not poured out and given by Him, as the Latins want, but He Himself descends sovereignly and autocratically, with the good will of the Father and the Son, and fulfills with His gifts those worthy of His coming. A reliable witness to this is Saint John Chrysostom, who in the 15th word of his moral teachings, actually about the Holy Spirit, says this: “The Holy Spirit is indivisible by nature, as coming from an indivisible nature; His names are: the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of the Father, the Spirit of the Son, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit who is from God, the Spirit of life. All these are names for the pure power of the Holy and worshiped Spirit. There are other names that relate not to nature, but to His action and power, what are His gifts, such as: the Spirit of holiness, faith, promise, wisdom, love, power, meekness, sonship, revelation, counsel, strength, reason and piety, the fear of God.” Then he says: “This is told to us about the divine dominion of the Holy Spirit, about the difference of actions. The heretics, not realizing that when the Holy Spirit is spoken of, the promises of gifts are recalled, they attribute this to nature, saying: Do you see that this is the gift of God, that God gave and the Holy Spirit gave? And they honored the name of gifts and attributed it to nature. They should know which names show nature and which ones signify the grace of the Spirit.” And again a little later: “One thing is the Holy Spirit, and another is a gift, just as another is a king, and another is a gift of a king.” Then, having divided the sayings about the Holy Spirit, he leads, saying: “If you hear someone saying: I will send you the Holy Spirit, do not attribute this to the Divinity, for God is not sent; these are names denoting actions.” And again further: “When he says: I will send you the Holy Spirit, then understand the gift of the Spirit, for the gift is sent, but the Spirit is not sent. The Savior says to the apostles: “Sit in the city of Jerusalem, until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49), “the Holy Spirit will come upon you” (Acts 1:8). The other is the power bestowed, and the other is the Spirit who bestows.” Then, having shown that the Lord was sent from the Father and the Spirit, he concludes by saying: “The Creator of heaven says: The Lord sent Me and His Spirit. Heretics take the message of the Spirit as an annoyance. The Father sent, without retreating, the Son sent the Spirit, without dividing or separating. Therefore the Scripture says: God poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit. Divinity is not poured out, but this shows that it is a gift, since what is poured out is not the Holy Spirit, but the grace of the Spirit of God. David says to Christ: “Grace is poured out on Your lips” (Ps. 45:3): it is grace that is poured out, not He who gives grace.” These words of Blessed Chrysostom, most honorable Theodore, are sufficient to drive away all Latin error, and to teach that the Holy Spirit, as consubstantial with the Father and the Son, is not received and not poured out by the Son, but His grace, that is, the division of gifts, is accepted and sent, and divinely poured out on the worthy. So, the Son is the giver of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and not the author of His existence and the emitter of His hypostasis; for one source of Divinity is His Father, according to the teachings of the holy Dionysius. The Latins, deceived by the similarity of the names of the gifts, attributed their names to the very hypostasis of the Spirit, doing so either with the insidious purpose of proving their teaching, or not understanding the differences between nature and gifts. But let Gregory, great in the divine, who has the title of Theologian befitting his dignity, come forward on Wednesday, and let him teach us the immutability of the immovable nature, that is, the hypostases. In one of his theological words, he clearly says this: “peculiarity is something unchangeable, otherwise how can it remain a peculiarity if it changes and is transformed. The procession of the Spirit in the sense of the cause of being does not pass from the Father to the Son; if it is common to both and does not pass on, then even then it cannot be a peculiarity; for what is common is not particular.” What could be clearer or truer than this theology? He says that the procession of the Spirit does not pass from the Father to the Son, so as to be the author of existence, and if the procession of the Spirit is common to both, that is, the Father and the Son, then this will no longer be a peculiarity. And how can the divinely inspired teaching of sacred theologians about the divine hypostases remain true, when Nicholas and his like-minded people very poorly and ignorantly unite the unborn and the born into one principle? Will they not turn out to follow Sabellius, as confusing unmixed characteristics, attributing them together to the Father and the Son? This is not how one should reason, Nicholas, about the Most High Trinity, not this way! You should be ashamed of the dignity of the ancient theologians and fathers, and from them learn the right and infallible path, since their reliability is evidenced not only by time and their extreme wisdom, but also by their angelic life and, moreover, by the grace of the Divine Comforter infused into them, which glorified them with countless gifts. But let no one, because of what has been said, think that we understand that the Holy Spirit did not essentially descend on the holy apostles, or that He was sent from the Son. May we not have such blasphemy! But, wishing to expose the false teaching of those who, by the descent of the Holy Spirit on the holy disciples in their time, strive to prove that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son as well as from the Father, that is, by hypostasis it comes as being and Divinity, we say that the tongues (of fire) that appeared then did not mean the division of the essence, but served as a demonstration of various gifts, sovereignly shared by the Comforter, and that grace it is not poured out by the being of the Son; for the being is one of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and by nature remains inseparable and inexhaustible. Nicholas should be asked about this again: if it is inseparable, then how does the Son accept what he has in Himself connectively, as was said before? If all the God-originating hypostases are essentially united to each other, then why is there a different position, and how is what is given accepted and separated while it is in the hands of the receiver? What could be more wicked than to speak and think like this, and will not Arian fury rear its head again and upset everything? How is it not extremely crazy to say that the Savior then received from the Father the essence of the Paraclete and poured it out on the apostles, whereas He has within Himself inseparably, as co-essential with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as we have said many times, what it is said that He received it? How can we understand what was said then, that the Savior “received, poured out,” as blessed Peter said in Acts? What has been said should be understood piously, dear Theodore, and not rudely, in a carnal way. The Holy Trinity, an inseparable being, is divided mysteriously and mentally by hypostatic properties, that is, non-generation, birth and procession. But just as it is divided mysteriously by hypostases, so it is united again by being. The Father deigned that through the Son the Divine Paraclete would appear to the disciples and fill them with strength and wisdom, as the Savior repeatedly promised them, speaking in human form, that they would receive divine planting, that (the Spirit) would be sent and poured out, and the like. For God, according to St. Chrysostom, is not sent and is not poured out. Where will He go, Who is everywhere with the Father and the Son, and how will He be poured out, Who revives and sanctifies everything without being poured out? Let us not think about the Holy Spirit that He, like Gabriel and other ministering spirits, who are servilely sent into service, is sent. Away from us such an evil fabrication! But let us understand that the favor of the Father and the Son is (for the Spirit) a divine message; for He appears and comes autocratically, making blessed and sharing His most honest gifts to the disciples, and He acts in them all according to His Lord’s authority, as equal in everything to the Father and the only begotten Son, and does not receive commands and is not sent as a slave or lesser. Divine Scripture is often expressed expediently and inconsistently with the greatness of the Divine, condescending to our weakness, and if we do not understand this properly, we can fall into countless incongruities. This is the saying of the Savior: “I will pray to the Father,” which should be understood as an expression of His strongest love for us and providence. For if anyone takes this expression “I beseech” literally, as read in the Gospel, he will find in it countless inappropriate concepts: firstly, it turns out that the Father did not want to send the Holy Spirit before, and to say so is dishonest and contradicts Paul and John. For Paul says about the Father: “I have no mercy even on His Son” (Rom. 8:32), and so on; John: “God so loved the world, as He gave His only begotten Son to eat” for the salvation of the world (John 3:16). Secondly, the concept will appear about the Son that He has no power to give the Holy Spirit, which is just as wicked to think as the fact that the Father and the Son do not have the same will. If He needs prayer, then it is obvious that either He is not able to fulfill His intention by Himself, and therefore asks someone who can; or he cannot do this at all with His power, and therefore turns to one who has the power to do good. For which of these two reasons do we recognize the Only Begotten as praying to the Father to send down the Comforter? Let him who knows speak out of love for the truth, and not for the sake of vain disputes. Let us understand what a disastrous abyss opens up for those who do not carefully interpret the sayings of the Divine Scripture, not according to the mind of the holy fathers. Just as by prayer we mean the inexpressible love of the Savior for us, so by His acceptance of the Father’s promise, by outpouring, or giving and sending, we piously understand that the coming of the Comforter to the disciples was accomplished by the common good will of the Father and the Son. I consider what has been said sufficient to refute the first two chapters of Nicholas; Now I’ll move on to the rest of its chapters. But I am surprised how Nicholas, recognizing and calling himself Orthodox in everything, was not afraid of the ineffable, incomprehensible and ever-essential procession of the One from the uncreated and incomprehensible Trinity - the Most Holy Spirit, who vivifies everything, to quote a saying that gives His procession the meaning of creation and creation, and classifies it (the procession) among other creatures, that even to think, not to say what to say and commit to writing You might be interested in: