Огласительное поучение шестнадцатое

К готовящимся в Иepyeсалиме ко просвещению, сказанное без приготовления, на слова: И во единаго Духа Святаго, Утешителя, глаголавшаго Пророки, и также на слова из послания к Коринфянам: О духовных же, бpamие, не хощу вас не ведети, и проч. (1 Кор. 12, 1.) Разделения же дарований суть, а тойжде Дух, и проч. (1 Кор. 12, 4).

1. Духовная поистине нужна благодать, чтобы рассуждать о Святом Духе: не с тем чтобы, сколько должно, сказать о Нем, ибо cиe невозможно; но чтобы, говоря о Нем на основании Божественного Писания, избегнуть таким образом опасностей. Ибо действительно весьма страшно написано в Евангелии, где Христос сказав ясно: иже аще речет слово на Духа Святаго, не отпустится ему ни в сей век, ни в будущий (Мф. 12, 32); и часто нужно бывает бояться, чтобы кто-либо по неведению, или ложному чувству благочестия, сказав что непристойное о Нем, не подвергся осуждению. Судия живых и мертвых Иисус Христос сказал, что таковому не будет отпущено. Итак, если кто здесь преткнется, то какая ему остается надежда?

2. Итак, сама благодать Иисуса Христа да подаст силы нам все без опущения сказать, а вам с разумением выслушать. Ибо разумение необходимо не только для говорящих, но и для слушающих; чтобы они не иначе, как слышать, понимали умом своим. Итак, мы будем говорить о Духе Святом только то, что написано. Если же не написано чего, о том не станем любопытствовать. Сам Дух Святый изрек Писания; сам и о Себе сказал, сколько хотел, или сколько мы вместить можем. Итак, будем говорить то, что Он сказал; а чего Он не сказал, того и мы говорить да не дерзаем.

3. Един есть только Дух Святый, Утешитель. Как един есть Бог Отец, а другого Отца нет, и как един есть Единородный Сын и Слово Божие, а брата не имеет: равным образом, един. есть только Дух Святый, и нет другого духа, равного Ему. Итак, Дух Святый есть величайшая сила, существо Божественное и непостижимое. Ибо Он есть существо живое, умное и освящающее все, что от Бога чрез Христа сотворено. Он просвещает души праведных; Он и во Пророках, Он и в Апостолах, в Новом Завете. Да возненавидим же тех, которые осмеливаются разделять действовавшего в тех и других Святого Духа; един Бог Отец, Владыка Ветхого и Нового Завета; и един Господь Иисус Христос, в Ветхом Завете предсказанный, а в Новом пришедший, и един Дух Святый, чрез Пророков о Христе проповедавший по пришествии Христа сошедший и показавший Его.

4. Итак, никто не отделяй Ветхого Завета от Нового, никто не говори, что иной Дух там, а иной здесь.Поскольку таковой оскорбляет самого Духа Святого, вместе со Отцем и Сыном почитаемого, и во время Святого Крещения во Святой Троице открывшегося. Ибо Единородный Сын Божий ясно сказал Апостолам: шедше научите вся языки, крестяще их во имя Отца и Сына и Святою Духа (Мф. 28, 19). Надежда наша во Отца .и Сына и Духа Святого. Не трех богов проповедуем: да умолкнуть Маркиониты; но со Святым Духом, чрез единого Сына одного Бога проповедуем. Нет различия в веpе, нет разделения в благочестии. Не разделяем, подобно некоторым, Святую Троицу; ни сливаем, как Савеллий. Но с благочестием признаем одного Отца, пославшего нам Спасителя Сына; признаем одного Сына, обещавшего послать от Oтца Утешителя; признаем Духа Святого, глаголавшего в Пророках, и в день Пятидесятницы сошедшего на Апостолов в виде огненных языков, здесь в Иерусалиме, в том месте, где горняя во имя Апостолов Церковь. Мы имеем вcе преимущества: здесь Христос сошел с небес; здесь Дух Святый сошел с небес; и по истине весьма прилично было бы и о Духе Святом говорить в оной горней Церкви, так как мы о Христе и Голгофе говорим на сей Голгофе.Поскольку же Сошедший там вместе приемлет славу с Распятым здесь, то потому о Сошедшем так говорим здесь: ибо нераздельно благочестие.

5. Мы хотим сказать нечто о Святом Духе не с тем, чтобы совершенно изъяснить существо Его, ибо cиe невозможно; но с тем, чтобы показать различные, касательно Его заблуждения, чтобы по неведению когда-либо не впасть в оныя; и преградить пути лжи, чтобы идти одним путем Царским. Если же для предосторожности предложим теперь что-либо сказанное еретиками, то cиe да обратится на главу их; мы же как говорящие, так и слушающие виновны не будем.

6. The impious heretics in all cases sharpened their tongues against the Holy Spirit and dared to assert absurdities, as the narrator Irenaeus wrote in his writings against heresies. Some have dared to call themselves the Holy Spirit, of whom the first is Simon the sorcerer, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. He dared to teach these things after he had been rejected; and the so-called Gnostics, impious people, said other things about the Holy Spirit. The lawless Valentinians are again different; and the impious Manes dared to say that he himself was the Comforter sent by Christ. And others said that one Spirit was in the prophets, and another in the New Testament. Their error, or rather blasphemy, is manifold. Therefore, hate such and flee those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit, for whom there is no remission. What fellowship do you have with the desperate, who now have to be baptized into the Holy Spirit? If he who associates with a thief and agrees with him is subject to punishment, then what can the one who offends the Holy Spirit expect?

7. Let the Marcionites also be hated, who destroyed in the New Testament the words quoted from the Old Testament. For the first godless Marcion, the first to admit three gods, and seeing that in the New Testament there were testimonies about Christ from the Prophets, he destroyed these testimonies of the Old Testament, in order to leave the King without witnesses. Let the aforesaid Gnostics, experts in name, but full of ignorance, who dare to say things about the Holy Spirit that I dare not say, be hated.

8. Let Catafrigi and Montanus, the chief of evil, and his two prophetesses, Maximilla and Priscilla, be hated. For this Montanus, mad and truly violent, he would not have said this if he had not been in a frenzy, dared to call himself the Holy Spirit, being a lowly man and full of all uncleanness and abomination. In order not to offend the chastity of the women who are here, it is enough to explain this by means of signs. Having occupied Pepusa, the smallest place in Phrygia, and falsely calling it Jerusalem, he slew there the unfortunate little children of women and broke them up into lawless food, under the pretext of what they called mysteries. For this reason, before, during the persecution, we were suspected of this; for these Montanists, though falsely, were called by the same name of Christians. A man full of all impiety and inhumanity dared to call himself the Holy Spirit, and he is subject to condemnation as unanswerable.

9. His companion was, as said before, the second most impious Manes, who gathered evil from all heresies. He, the last pit of perdition, having gathered together all the heretical teaching, composed a new lie and taught it. He dared to say that he was the Comforter, whom Christ had promised to send. But the Saviour, promising the Comforter, said to the Apostles: "But ye sit in the city of Jerusalem, until ye shall be clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). Well? Did the Apostles, who had died two hundred years before, wait for Manes to be clothed with power? And who will dare to say that they have not been filled with the Holy Spirit during this time? And it is written that they then laid on their hands, and received the Spirit of Svatago (Acts 8:17). Was it not before Manes, and before many years, that this came to pass, when the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost?

10. Why was Simon the sorcerer condemned? Is it not because he came to the Apostles and said: "Give me also this power, that if I lay my hand on it, I will receive the Holy Spirit" (Acts 8:19)? He did not say, "Give me also the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, but power, to sell to others what he cannot sell, and which he himself did not have." And He brought silver to those who are not covetous. He saw that those who brought the price of the sold possessions laid it at the feet of the Apostles; but he did not consider that those who trample under foot the wealth brought for the sustenance of the poor would not give for a price the power of the Holy Spirit. What do they say to Simon? Thy silver is with thee, let it be unto destruction, for thou hast not acquired the gift of God with silver (Acts 8:20). Thou art the second Judas; you thought that the gift of the Spirit could be sold for silver. If, then, Simon, who wanted to gain power for a price, perished, then how wicked was Manes, who called himself the Holy Spirit? Let us hate those who are worthy of hatred; let us turn away from those whom God abhors. Let us also say to God with all boldness about all heretics: "Do not they that hate Thee, O Lord, hate Thee, and about Thy enemies that are tormented" (Psalm 138:21)? For there is also good enmity, as it is written, for example: "And thou shalt put enmity between thee and thy seed" (Gen. 3:15). For love for the serpent produces enmity against God and death.

11. So this is what we had to say about the outcasts. Now let us turn to the Divine Scriptures, and let us drink water from our vessels (Proverbs 5:15), that is, from the Holy Fathers, and from our wells of the spring. Let us drink of the living water that flows into eternal life (John 4:14). And this is what the Saviour said about the Spirit, Whom they that believe in Him willingly receive (John 7:39). Take note of what He says, believe in Me, not simply, but as the Scripture speaks. He points out to you the words of the Old Testament: "Rivers shall flow out of his belly, living waters" (38). Not visible rivers, watering the earth, producing only thorns and trees, but rivers enlightening the soul. And in another place to say: "But the water which I will give him, there shall be in him a fountain of water flowing in the living everlasting" (John 4:14), New living and flowing water, flowing on the worthy.

12. And why did He call spiritual grace water? In the water there is vegetable and animal power. Water descends from heaven in the rain; and although it descends in one form, it has different effects. One fountain waters the whole paradise: the same rain falls all over the world, but in the lily it is white, in the rose ruddy, in violets and hyacinths scarlet, and in every kind of flowers different and diverse. In dates it is like this, and in grapes it is different, and gives everything a special appearance, while. he is of the same kind and not different in himself. For rain, which does not change in itself, does not descend in one form or another; but entering into the composition of those things that receive it, in each produces its own effect. In the same way, the Holy Spirit, being one and the same and indivisible, divides grace to each as He pleases. And as a dry tree, being watered, sends forth sprouts; in the same way, the sinful soul, having received the Holy Spirit through repentance, brings forth the fruits of righteousness. For He, being the same, according to the will of God the Father, in the name of Christ produces different actions. In the one it turns the tongue to the word of wisdom, in the other it enlightens the soul with prophecy; to some He gives the power to cast out demons, and to another He gives the ability to interpret the Divine Scriptures. He strengthens the one in chastity, teaches the other charity; he teaches some fasting and asceticism, another he teaches contempt for that which pertains to the body, and prepares others for martyrdom; in others He produces another: but He is not different in Himself, as it is written: "For the manifestation of the Spirit is given for profit" (1 Corinthians 12:7), for to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of understanding, about the same Douce (8): to another faith, by the same Spirit (9), to another the work of powers: to another prophecy, to another reasoning by the Spirit, and to another thou shalt bring tongues (10). And all this works in one and the same Spirit, dividing by power as He willeth (1 Corinthians 12:11).