10. Accordingly, if created spirit bears this meaning, we can appropriately take the thunder which is established to be the sure word and unshakable law of the Spirit. It was of this word that our Lord wished James and John to be ministers when he called them Boanerges, which is, Sons of thunder. Wherefore John cries aloud, veritably from heaven: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ For aforetime the law had ‘a shadow of good things to come’. But when Christ was declared to men, and came saying, ‘I that speak unto thee am he’, then, in the words of Paul: ‘his voice shook the earth, as he promised of old, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of the things that are shaken, that the things which are not shaken may remain. Wherefore, receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, we have grace whereby we offer service well pleasing to God.’ But that kingdom which he calls unshakable, David in the Psalms declares to be established. ‘The Lord reigneth, he hath clothed himself with majesty. The Lord hath clothed and girded himself with strength. He hath also established the world, that it shall not be shaken.’ So then this text in the prophet signifies the coming of the Saviour, whereby we are renewed and the law of the Spirit remains unshaken.

But these Tropici, true to their name, having made a compact with the Arians and portioned out with them the blasphemy against the Godhead, so that these may call the Son a creature and those the Spirit—the Tropici, in their own words, have dared to devise for themselves tropes and to pervert also the saying of the Apostle which he blamelessly wrote to Timothy, saying: ‘I charge thee in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels that thou observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing by partiality.’ But they say that, because he mentions God and Christ and then the angels, the Spirit must be counted with the angels, and belong himself to their category, and be an angel greater than the others. This discovery first proceeded from the impiety of Valentinus, and they have not been able to conceal the fact that they are expressing his sentiments. For he said that, when the Paraclete was sent, his contemporaries among the angels were sent with him. Yet they have not realized that, by reducing the Spirit to the level of the angels, they are ranking the angels with the Triad. For if, as they say, after the Father and the Son come the angels, then clearly the angels belong to the Triad and are no longer ‘ministering spirits sent forth to do service’, nor are they sanctified, but rather themselves sanctify others.

Οὐκοῦν τοῦ κτιζομένου πνεύματος τοιαύτην ἔχοντος τὴν διάνοιαν, πρεπόντως ἂν νοηθείη καὶ ἡ στερεουμένη βροντὴ ὁ πιστὸς λόγος, καὶ ἀσάλευτος τοῦ πνεύματος ὁ νόμος. Τούτου γὰρ ὑπηρέτας εἶναι θέλων τὸν Ἰακὼβ καὶ τὸν Ἰωάννην, ἐκάλεσεν ὁ Κύριος Βοανεργὲς, ὅ ἐστιν, υἱοὶ βροντῆς· ὅ γ' οὖν Ἰωάν νης ἀληθῶς ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ βοᾷ· «Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος, καὶ ὁ Λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν, καὶ Θεὸς ἦν ὁ Λόγος.» Πρότερον μὲν γὰρ σκιὰν εἶχεν ὁ νόμος τῶν μελλόν των ἀγαθῶν· ὅτε δὲ ὁ Χριστὸς ἀπηγγέλη τοῖς ἀνθρώ ποις καὶ παρεγένετο λέγων· «Αὐτὸς ὁ λαλῶν πάρ ειμι· τότε,» ὡς εἶπεν ὁ Παῦλος, «ἡ τούτου φωνὴ τὴν γῆν ἐσάλευσεν, ἐπαγγειλαμένου πρότερον· Ἔτι ἅπαξ ἐγὼ σείσω οὐ μόνον τὴν γῆν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν οὐρανόν. Τὸ δὲ ἔτι ἅπαξ δηλοῖ τῶν σαλευομένων τὴν μετάθεσιν, ἵνα μείνῃ τὰ μὴ σαλευόμενα. ∆ιὸ βασιλείαν ἀσάλευτον παραλαμβάνοντες, ἔχομεν χάριν, δι' ἧς λατρεύομεν εὐαρέστως τῷ Θεῷ.» Ἣν δὲ λέ γει βασιλείαν οὗτος ἀσάλευτον, ταύτην στερεωθεῖσαν ψάλλει ∆αβίδ· «Ὁ Κύριος ἐβασίλευσεν, εὐπρέπειαν ἐνεδύσατο· ἐνεδύσατο Κύριος δύναμιν καὶ περιεζώσατο. Καὶ γὰρ ἐστερέωσε τὴν οἰκουμένην, ἥτις οὐ σαλευθήσεται.» Τὸ ἄρα παρὰ τῷ προφήτῃ ῥητὸν τὴν ἐπιδημίαν τοῦ Σωτῆρος σημαίνει, ἐν ᾗ καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀν εκαινίσθημεν, καὶ ὁ νόμος τοῦ πνεύματος ἀσάλευ τος διαμένει. Ἀλλ' οἱ τῷ ὄντι τροπικοὶ, συνθέμενοι τοῖς Ἀρειανοῖς, καὶ μερισάμενοι μετ' αὐτῶν τὴν εἰς τὴν θεότητα βλασφημίαν, ἵνα ἐκεῖνοι μὲν τὸν Υἱὸν, οὗτοι δὲ τὸ Πνεῦμα κτίσμα λέγωσιν· ἐτόλμησαν, ὡς αὐτοί φασι, τρόπους πάλιν ἑαυτοῖς ἐφευρεῖν καὶ παρεξηγεῖσθαι καὶ τὸ τοῦ Ἀποστόλου ῥητὸν, ὃ καλῶς μὲν αὐτὸς ἔγραφε Τιμοθέῳ λέγων· «∆ια μαρτύρομαι ἐνώπιον τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ τῶν ἐκλεκτῶν ἀγγέλων, ἵνα ταῦτα φυλάξῃς χωρὶς προκρίματος, μηδὲν ποιῶν κατὰ πρόσκλησιν.» Ἐκεῖνοι δὲ φάσκουσιν, ἐπειδὴ τὸν Θεὸν καὶ τὸν Χριστὸν ὠνόμασεν, εἶτα τοὺς ἀγγέλους, ἀνάγκῃ τοῖς ἀγ γέλοις συναριθμεῖσθαι τὸ Πνεῦμα, τῆς τε αὐτῶν εἶναι συστοιχίας καὶ αὐτὸ, καὶ ἄγγελον εἶναι μείζονα τῶν ἄλλων. Πρῶτον μὲν οὖν τῆς ἀσεβείας ἐστὶν Οὐαλεντίνου τοῦτο τὸ εὕρημα· καὶ οὐκ ἔλαθον οὗτοι τὰ ἐκείνου φθεγγόμενοι. Ἐκεῖνος γὰρ ἔφη σεν, ὅτι, πεμφθέντος τοῦ Παρακλήτου, συναπεστάλη σαν αὐτῷ οἱ ἡλικιῶται αὐτοῦ ἄγγελοι· ἔπειτα δὲ τὸ Πνεῦμα κατάγοντες εἰς τοὺς ἀγγέλους εἰς τὴν Τριάδα συντάσσοντες. Εἰ γὰρ μετὰ Πατέρα καὶ Υἱὸν κατ' αὐτοὺς οἱ ἄγγελοι, δηλονότι τὴν Τριάδος εἰσὶν οἱ ἄγγελοι, καὶ οὐκ ἔτι «λειτουργικὰ πνεύματα εἰς διακονίαν ἀποστελλόμενοι,» οὐδὲ ἁγιαζόμενοι, ἀλλ' αὐτοὶ μᾶλλον ἁγιάζοντες ἄλλους ἂν εἶεν.