Against Nicholas the Latin

“Every gift is good, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). Every manifestation of light moved by the Father, which comes to us with grace, again, as a single-creating force, raises us to heights and turns us to the Father, as the collector of unity and god-created simplicity. The natural good itself, the Word, says: “The Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father” (John 15:26). God is the sun of truth, as it is written, which simply extends its rays of grace to everyone; the soul of every person: the God-loving one is like wax, and the material-loving soul is like feces that is dried up by the sun; Likewise, the soul, committed to matter and peace-loving, is punished by God and, because of its own will, like dried feces, does not perceive the sign of the seal and strives for destruction. The God-loving soul, like wax, softens and, taking upon itself the image of divine understandings, becomes “a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22). From the very beginning, the evil enemy of our salvation maliciously planted great sins in the souls of people devoted to passions, and with them the evil Satan forbids them to prefer this immortal life. What are these sins? This is opinion and exaltation. But you, listener, do not be a follower of opinion and exaltation, filling the air with words about how the Latins understand and explain the Holy Scriptures. Their understanding is characteristic only of followers of vanity and their interpretation is reckless. You are writing to ask me to express my opinion about this. If I begin to write my opinion on the content of your message, as you did regarding my little writing, then I am afraid that the summer will not find me writing this and gaining nothing. And as I heard that you are preparing to accept penance and repent, we will get down to business and begin the study not in general terms, but we will borrow the solution to incomprehensible questions from the Holy Scripture itself. For he who philosophizes from his own opinion, as he wishes, deceives himself, but he who learns from Scripture has the truth itself as his teacher. But it’s time to get down to business. I ask you, listen carefully and listen with your mind, so that what is said does not go past your ears, and let your mind carefully reason: for this word is about the Holy Spirit. This is not a simple story, but an explanation of the mystery of true faith. The Holy Spirit first brought about creation with the Father and the Son, as David says: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth was all their power” (Ps. 33:6). The Spirit proceeds from the being of the Father; Therefore, the prophet did not say about the Word: “The word of his mouth,” in order to clearly show and assure that he was talking about the procession (of the Spirit). But He comes solely from the one Father, and not, as you say, that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son with one breath. From this it follows that God was not perfect at first, but only the Father and the Son, and that subsequently, having repented, He took on the missing Person, that is, the Spirit, giving Him out with the common breath, and thus received the fullness of perfection. Oh, what a misconception! How contrary it is to the Orthodox faith, to philosophize like that! Not like that, not like that! The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit differ, according to Damascus, in the difference that the Father is unborn, the Son is begotten and is co-begotten with the Father, having one beginning - a flightless birth, but the Holy Spirit comes from the Father, is co-begotten with the Father and the Word, having one beginning - an origin from the Father, without beginning, like the Son; Moreover, neither the Father is deprived of ungeneration, as he who gives birth to the Son, nor the Son is deprived of birth, as he is begotten; Likewise, the Spirit, by its procession, is not transformed into the Father or the Son and, like God, retains His property unchanged. Otherwise, how can a property remain a property if it changes and passes? Now it is timely for me to present here the testimony you gave about the Holy Spirit, where it is said: “Because you are the sons of God, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6). Consider, I ask you, what the Apostle said: “When the end of the year was come, God sent His Son, begotten of a woman, and we were under the law” (Gal. 4:4). Why did he come down? - “let him redeem those under the law,” and so as not only to cancel the oath of the law, but also “to accept sonship.” This is said about Christ. What does it say next? “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts” (Gal.4:6), that is, the Spirit of sonhood. This is what Paul calls Him in another place, saying: “For he did not receive the spirit of work through fear, but received the Spirit of sonhood” (Rom. 8:15). The Lord called Him the Spirit of truth, saying: “When the Comforter comes... the Spirit of truth” (John 15:26). For this reason, after Christ, He, our Comforter, does not cease (to be with us), so that you remember their equal honor. Here the Spirit is, as it were, called another Son, for truly the Spirit is equal to the Son in action and consubstantial with Him, except by birth. Just as Christ accepts sonship, so the Spirit accomplishes sonship, for “no one can speak of the Lord Jesus except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). And Christ in the first letter of John is called the Comforter (Intercessor): “if anyone sins, the imams made an intercessor to the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). When the Comforter (Christ) departed, another Comforter had to come, that is, the Spirit. For the Lord Himself says in the Gospel of John: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter” (John 14:16), another, he says, the same as Me, equal to Me. Pay full attention to the words of the Lord, which you offer as proof that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son: “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His” (Rom. 8:9). Truly, here the Spirit of Christ is the name given to the covenant given by Him, the Spirit of Christ's law, which commands us to love our neighbors, despise earthly things, care for heavenly things, exhaust the flesh because of sin, and curb carnal thoughts. I don’t think that anyone could do this without the Spirit of Christ, for such a person, due to envy, destroys the mind, he is magnified with pride, he is hardened with anger to the point of frenzy of mind, he is tormented by stinginess, he perishes from debauchery. You, listener, do not be embarrassed when you hear this. Above, the apostle said: “But those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8). Who are these beings in the flesh? Obviously, these are those who are guided by a carnal way of thinking. “You are in the flesh, but in spirit,” for the sake of the grace of God given to you. “You are in the flesh,” that is, you do not abide in carnal sinful deeds, but are guided by a spiritual mind, and therefore you are no longer there, “while the Spirit of God lives in you.” Why did he add: “the Spirit of Christ” (ibid., Rom. 8:9)? - So that they do not accept another, since there are many spirits, but the true Spirit of the Lord, whom Christ promised to send from the Father, for we are saved by the common goodwill of the Holy Trinity. And again you say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son; This the Son has from the Father, as He Himself says: “All things were handed over to Me from My Father” (Luke 10:22). You shouldn't be embarrassed by this. Did the Father transmit the Holy Spirit to the Son? Oh, what a great lawlessness it is to equate God the Spirit with a slave! What does it mean: “all things were handed over to Me from My Father?” Above, He said to the Father: “thou hast revealed it”; so that you do not think that He Himself does nothing and that everything is from the Father, He says: “Everything was given over to Me,” that is, the power is one with Me and with Him. And again, “the Son cannot do anything for Himself, for what He does, the Son also does likewise” (John 5:19). And again: “I live for the Father’s sake” (John 6:57). And He Who is the power of God says about Himself: “The Son cannot do anything for Himself,” and self-perfect Wisdom says that He received the commandment, “What I will say and what I will say.” And again, “I do not speak about myself,” but “as the Father commanded me, so do I” (John 12:49, 14:31). He says all this not because He has no power and cannot take on anything, but would wait for all commands, but He says this to show that His mind is united with the mind of the Father, and with all this He leads us to the knowledge of the Father, to Whom He attributes the former miracles, so that we thus know the Father. I ask you, do not say that the Son has from the Father that the Holy Spirit proceeds from Him. Do you not know what the Holy Word says, explaining openly: “But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things?” (John 14:26) Tell me, where does the Son clearly say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from Him? On the contrary, the Lord said: “The Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father” (John 15:26). Do you see how clearly and openly it is said that from the Father proceeds not by birth, but by procession, the one in essence of the Father and the Son and the ever-present Spirit of God - the right, possessing, source of life and holiness, recognized together with the Father and the Son as the true God? But you again say that it is clearly revealed about the Holy Spirit by the Son, that He proceeds from Him, in the words: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Believe in Me, as the scripture says, rivers of living waters will flow out of his belly. This is what is said about Dus, whom those who believe in His name want to receive” (John 7:37-39). Consider what I tell you: Jesus Christ and our God stood and cried, saying: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.” This proves that Christ does not force anyone and does not forcefully draw anyone to Himself, but calls only those who have great and warm zeal; He calls only such people and wants to give them water, for whoever drinks this water “will never thirst forever” (John 4:14). All who are thirsty, come to this water, drink, and receive life. For those who are thirsty, when they take a cup filled to the top in their hands, hold it with great zeal and effort until they drink and cool off. Likewise, those who listen to the teaching of our Savior God, if they accept it with thirst, then do not stop drinking until they are drunk. Understand what I'm saying. “Believe in Me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living waters will flow out of his belly” (John 7:38). Many thought of themselves that they believed, but they did not believe “as scripture says,” but followed their own will, and therefore they are heretics. Rivers of living water will flow from the belly of the one who believes “as the scripture says.” The womb here is called the heart, that is, the rational and verbal part of the soul, as elsewhere it is said: “and Thy law is in the midst of my womb” (Ps. 39:9). The grace of the Holy Spirit, when it dwells in a pure heart and finds a place for itself in it, flows out more abundantly than any source, never stops flowing, is not exhausted and never stops. I know this well from the example of the apostles themselves: they taught and preached the word of God without fear and thought nothing of the resistance of the tormentors, the slander that was leveled at them in many cities, and the rage of the ferocious peoples, but they flowed out rivers of living water of their teaching. This was the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit, as the evangelist says: “Now this is spoken of Dus, whom those who believe in His name will receive” (John 7:39). The Spirit of truth is light and life and a living source of intelligence, the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of reason, good, right, intelligent (mental), possessing, cleansing sins, God and idolizer, fire comes from fire, speaks, acts, divides gifts (from the stichera on the day of Pentecost), as the Apostle says: “Divisions of gifts are, and likewise the Spirit: and divisions of ministries essence, and the same is the Lord: and the divisions of actions are, and the same is God, acting all in all. The manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of everyone. To one is given the word of wisdom by the Spirit, to another the word of reason about the same Spirit: to another faith, by the same Spirit: to another the gifts of healing, about the same Spirit: to another the actions of powers, to another prophecy, to another spiritual reasoning, to another the birth of tongues, to another the telling of tongues. But all this operates in one and the same Spirit, dividing power to each as he wills” (1 Cor. 12:4-11). Again you say that it is said: “Behold, I will send the promise of My Father to you” (Luke 24:49); if the Son sends, it means that He comes from the Son, as well as from the Father.” Therefore, the Lord, according to you, left us to perish in complete ignorance? After all, He did not say: the Holy Spirit proceeds from Me, but on the contrary, He very clearly pointed out here the promise of the Father. Listen to Gregory the Theologian, who says: “When the Son came to us, it was fitting that the Spirit should appear bodily, and when Jesus Christ departed from us, it was fitting for Him to come down to us; He comes as the Lord, but He is sent as not opposed to God.” Such sayings show unanimity more than they divide nature, for They are divided inseparably and united, so to speak, unmerged: one in three is the Divinity and the three are one in Divinity. The Lord, showing His equality with the Father, says: “I will send the promise of My Father to you” (Luke 24:49). In another place the Lord says that the Father sends the Holy Spirit, but here he says about Himself that He sends Him, but from the Father, I think, He is sent. Due to consubstantiality, the Spirit is both Mine and the Fathers, but its being by nature is from the very being of the Father. He did not say that I am giving up the Spirit from My bosom, but what does He say? – The Spirit who proceeds from the Father is the Spirit of truth. Why are you philosophizing when you say that sending means the same thing as procession? If so, then the Father also comes from the Son, for the Son Himself says: “I am in the Father, and the Father in Me... the verbs that I speak to you, I do not say about Himself: but the Father abides in Me, He does the works” (John 14:10) (verb). Ah, what foolishness are those who say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son! This is not the Christian faith! The Lord said: “I am the way” (John 14:6). What kind of path is this? The way is Christ himself, for He said: “I am the way,” and through Me everyone will ascend to the Father. I am not only the way, but also the truth, therefore, you should be trustworthy, that what I say will not be false; but I am also life, and therefore, even if someone dies, he will not be deprived of coming to the Father - no other way, but only by Me can he come. If you walk actively, then Christ is your way; if you reach into vision, then He becomes truth for you. But many walked actively and practiced vision, and yet did not receive life, and this is because they practiced virtue out of the impulse of vanity; That’s why they lost the reward for their labors and got lost from the true path. Christ is the path to the true fulfillment of the word and the life for those who have achieved this vision. In our actions, we should look at the life of the next century, and not look at the opinions of mortal people. The Lord said: “Listen to My word and believe in Him who sent Me to have eternal life” (John 5:24). Why don’t you believe His words - don’t you believe what the Most Natural Word said: “The Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, bears witness of Me” (John 15:26), and did not say that He proceeds from Me? If you do not believe what Christ taught us, that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father, then you do not have eternal life. Oh, Nicholas, why don’t you obey the words of the Lord? What could be more conclusive than what the sacred word said: “The Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father!” Where did you come up with this idea - to change the words of God and reinterpret them according to your own mind? In another place the Lord said: “I tell you the truth; If I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you: if I do go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7). Understand from this the autocracy of the Spirit and the will of the Son: the word “The Comforter will come” signifies the power of the Spirit, and the words “I will send Him” indicate the will of the Son. And you say: the fact that the Son promises His disciples to send the Holy Spirit from Himself clearly proves that the Spirit proceeds from Him. Do not be deceived by the fact that when speaking about the descent of the Holy Spirit, He did not mention the Father; for above He said: “Whom I will send to you from the Father,” and he clearly indicated: “The Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father” (John 15:26). Also: “as I come to My Father” (John 5:24); and also: “Az reh, I go to the Father.” That is why He did not mention the Father again, since He had previously taught them that He was going to the Father, and promised from the Father to send them the true and life-giving Spirit. If you understand “sending” in the sense of “processing,” you will find that the Son is sent from the Spirit, as Isaiah says on behalf of the Son: “The Lord has sent Me, and His Spirit” (Is. 48:16). Look carefully and consider what is the other thing - to send, and the other thing - to proceed; for the Son is sent by the Father: does this mean that the Son proceeds from the Father? Or, according to your understanding, "to send" means the same as "to give birth"? Abandon your unbelief, for it is not the Christian faith to consider the Son to be the root of the Holy Spirit. Let us accept the essential teaching that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, but is equal to the Father and the Son. Let us remember that man is created in the image of God, and let us see how the unity and trinity of the Divine is depicted in him. How is this? It is obvious that the mind is unborn and is the image of the unborn God the Father; the word is mentally born, and it is born from the mind ineffably, invisible, ineffably and impassively, in the image of the begotten Son; the spirit is not born, but proceeds, flows around everywhere, inspects everything and invisibly embraces, in the image of the Most Pure, the Spirit emanating from the Father. Look: there is one source of Divinity - the Father; The Son and the Holy Spirit are branches of the original Godhead, as the Apostle says: “There is one God the Father, from Whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom are all things” (1 Cor. 8:6), and one Holy Spirit, in Whom are all things. Learn from the great-voiced Apostle Paul that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and is equal to the Father and the Son, and submit to his words, and believe in the Father, but do not test about Him; worship the Son and do not question Him about His birth; sing of the Holy Spirit and do not seek to comprehend the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Move your mind to the Jordan and see in action the mystery of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity revealed there: the Father who bears witness from above, the Son below who is baptized, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father in the form of a dove - and this will be enough for you for Orthodoxy. If you begin to believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son, then it will turn out that we are not created in the image of God, since our spirit does not come from our word, but one is born, and the other comes from one mind, and one is not subordinate to the other, but the mind, the word and the spirit have one common existence, just as the Holy Spirit receives existence from the one being of the Father, and not from the Son. Listen: we confess the one essence of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, so that neither the Son was born before the procession of the Holy Spirit, nor the Holy Spirit proceeded before the birth of the Son. These names - non-generation, birth and procession, neither one comes after the other, as we said, and although they have different names, they do not introduce different beings and are not divided, as if which beings are different, as the Arians and Eunomians claim; on the contrary, I say that they are divided in a single being according to the property of the divided persons of the inseparable being and nature and Divinity, and that there is one common existence of the Holy Trinity, beginningless, indescribable and incomprehensible. And those who strive to comprehend God are chasing their shadow, and who wanted to determine the essence of God, they are striving to measure the abyss with their handful, and who imagined that they had invented a way to do this, they fell into evil heresies. If the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son, it means that the Son of God was born from the Father before the procession of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit does not proceed co-essentially with the nature of the Father, but came from non-existence. The Trinity did not arise from non-existence, but in the Trinity there is eternally one Divinity and one glory of the Holy Trinity. But you dare to tear Her apart into different natures, recognizing the Father as eternally present, the Son as everlastingly seated with the Father, and regarding the Holy Spirit you believe that there was a time when He did not exist. Is the Trinity composed of non-existents? If so, then there was a time when there was no Trinity, but only a two, and then, repenting, this two produced the missing Person, that is, the Spirit, releasing Him with a common breath, and thus the Trinity achieved Its fullness. How are you not afraid to relegate the Spirit to the category of non-existent and how are you not ashamed to say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son? Oh, how contrary this is to the Orthodox faith! What a schism this is! How clearly and openly our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ Himself teaches us, saying in the Holy Gospel: “The Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, bears witness of Me”; and in another place in the same holy Gospel he says: “You will not be the ones who speak, but the Spirit of your Father will speak in you” (Matthew 10:20). Why don’t you believe the words of our Savior God and the Lord Jesus Christ? After all, He Himself said in the Holy Gospel: “Listen to My word and believe in Him who sent Me to have eternal life.” If you do not believe the words of our Savior God, the Lord Jesus Christ, spoken in the Holy Gospel, then you will not see eternal life. For it is written in the tenth canon of the Third Council: How can one not recognize as worthy of condemnation and damnation someone who takes away or adds anything to the faith? The right faith was fully taught by the holy apostles, and it does not tolerate any addition, but as we find written in our holy books, (this is what it should contain) and should neither be added nor subtracted, for great torment awaits both those who add and subtract.” I ask you, Nicholas, abandon your disbelief that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father, and stop claiming that He comes from the Son. Come and establish yourself on the rock of faith and confess that the Holy Spirit comes from one Father and is equal to the Father and the Son, for there is one being of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is what the apostolic rulers commanded us in their 49th canon, and this is what the seven ecumenical councils taught us. This is how all the holy fathers themselves believed and taught us. I received the two letters you sent, read them carefully and took up the pen to answer your first messages, which begin like this: “To Honest Mr. So-and-So”; also: “Honest husband, sir.” Having written this small answer, with the help of the Holy Spirit, I send it to you. He did not write about the Last Supper of Christ, and also left your third letter unanswered, so as not to burden your attention with the multitude and length of writings. The same scripture contains advice for good pleasure in everything that is said in it; for all the saints, whose testimonies we have presented little by little, lead us with confidence to the right faith and protect us from error and destruction. Woe to those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, for their sin will not be forgiven them either in this life or in the future, for through the Holy Spirit all the fathers taught and confirmed the Orthodox faith. We, holding the Apostolic Orthodox faith and the teaching of the fathers of the seven ecumenical councils and wearing it like a royal robe, will be honored to be heirs of the kingdom of heaven, by the grace of the Uncreated Consubstantial Trinity. Amen. You might be interested in: