The Omnipresence and Nature of the Spirit
Having appeared from a private opinion to be unproven, ungracious, and reckless, neither the Scripture saying that the Divine Spirit is a beginning, nor the Scripture euphemistically calling it 'Spirit of God' and 'from God' and 'divine' and 'holy', nor the Scripture not distinguishing between the first and the second regarding the nature of the divine hypostases, what dispute remains concerning them being in the unbegotten one Godhead and equality? The opponent claims that it fills the inhabited world and pervades all things, and that nothing created fills the inhabited world or pervades all things, and it is found in all; but rather it is the limit of the noetic powers and a defined quantity; for only these are proper to the Godhead.
But the greatness of the Holy Spirit is indissoluble, infinite, and everywhere, and through all, and in all always; filling the world and pervading according to the Godhead, yet uncontainable according to the power, and measuring indeed, but not being measured. 'For God does not give the Spirit according to measure,' as the Savior says in John (cf. John 3:8); and according to Wisdom, having it: 'For you love all existing things, and you loathe nothing of what you have made; for you would not have fashioned something if you hated it. How then would anything remain, if you had not willed it or if it had not been preserved by you? And spare all things, for all things are yours, O life-loving Lord, and your incorruptible Spirit is in all' (Wisdom 11:24-26). From this we appropriately name God the Father of all, not being our father by nature, as the Only-Begotten is.
And again: 'The Spirit of the Lord has filled the inhabited world, and the one pervading all things has the voice of knowledge;' (cf. Ps 104:30) instead of saying that it has taken up the invisible and visible creation, the intelligible and sensible, and nothing of all things is without his eternal oversight; for this pervading of all things demonstrates it. And he says, it hearkens to the voice of all, as God always being in all and everywhere, and bringing every material disorder into the proper order, and being sparing toward those made by him.
And even while attending to it, since He Himself is providence and wisdom by nature, having been permeated through all things, just as the Father is. For who possesses such knowledge? Isaiah says thus: 'spirit of knowledge and reverence' (Isa 11:2), and David suggests: 'where shall I go from your face? and from your spirit where shall I flee?' (Ps 139:7). And the Lord, teaching that the divinity of the Holy Spirit is not circumscribed by place, but is simultaneously in heaven and upon the earth, always providing all sufficiency and providing to creation, said according to John: 'if you love me, keep my commandments; and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, so that the spirit of truth may be with you, which the world cannot receive, it neither sees it nor knows it; but you know it, because it remains with you, and in you it shall be' (John 14:15-21).
In order that it might become known, how such testimonies manifest one single infinite nature present everywhere; they delivered the same things concerning another unmixed subsistence: Jeremiah, explaining from God and the Father, says: 'I fill the heaven and the earth, says the Lord' (Jer 23:24); David, singing about the Son in the 40th Psalm: 'and of his greatness there is no end' (Ps 72:5); and Paul, preaching about the same: 'he is the one who descended and the one who ascended above all the heavens, in order to fill all things' (Eph 4:10).
6.3 That creation, though incorruptible, is not absolutely incorrupt; rather it receives corruption, the nourishment which we say, and change, as the prophecy says: 'the one doing all things and reshaping them.' The wise men from without, having heard this, say: 'dissolving things into themselves, and from them again growing.' For the incorporeal rational creation has corruption according to choice, since God alone has given it a permanent nature, and having established it unto the age, and unto the age of ages; but it, changing by its own choice, falls into a worse state, and to it...
Greek
ἀδόκιμον, ἀχάριστον καὶ βέβηλον ἐξ οἰκείας γνώμης φανέν, γραφῆς δὲ μήτε λεγούσης εἶναι τοῦ θεϊκοῦ πνεύματος ἀρχήν, «πνεῦμα δὲ τοῦ θεοῦ» καὶ «ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ» καὶ «θεῖον» καὶ «ἅγιον» εὐφημούσης αὐτό, μήτε δὲ ἀφοριζούσης ἐπὶ τῆς φύσεως τῶν θείων ὑποστάσεως τὸ πρώτιστα καὶ τὸ ἔπειτα, ποῖα περὶ τοῦ εἶναι αὐτὰς ἐν τῇ ἀγενήτῳ μιᾷ θεότητι καὶ ἰσοτιμίᾳ ὑπολείπεται ἀμφισβήτησις; 6.2ν ὅτι πληροῖ τὴν οἰκουμένην, καὶ συνέχει τὰ πάντα οὐδὲν κτιστὸν πληροῖ τὴν οἰκουμένην, ἢ συνέχει τὰ πάντα, καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν τυγχάνει· ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν νοερῶν δυνάμεων πέρας 55 ἐστίν, καὶ ὡρισμένη ποσότης· μόνως γὰρ ταῦτα τῆς θεότητος ἴδια. ἡ δὲ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος μεγαλοσύνη ἀδιάλυτος, ἀπέραντος καὶ πανταχοῦ καὶ διὰ πάντων καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν ἀεί ἐστιν· πληροῦσα μὲν τὸν κόσμον καὶ συνέχουσα κατὰ τὴν θεότητα, ἀχώρητος δὲ κατὰ τὴν δύναμιν, καὶ μετροῦσα μέν, οὐ μετρουμένη δέ. «οὐ γὰρ ἐκ μέτρου δίδωσιν ὁ θεὸς τὸ πνεῦμα,» ὡς ὁ σωτὴρ ἐν Ἰωάννῃ λέγει· καὶ κατὰ τὴν Σοφίαν, ἔχουσαν· «ἀγαπᾷς γὰρ τὰ ὄντα πάντα, καὶ οὐδὲν βδελύσσῃ, ὧν ἐποίησας· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἂν μισῶν τι κατεσκεύασας. πῶς δὲ ἔμεινεν ἄν τι, εἰ μὴ σὺ ἠθέλησας ἢ τὸ μὴ βληθὲν ὑπὸ σοῦ ἐτηρήθη; φείδῃ δὲ πάν των, ὅτι πάντα σά ἐστιν, δέσποτα φιλόψυχε, καὶ τὸ ἄφθαρτόν σου πνεῦμά ἐστιν ἐν πᾶσιν.» ἔνθεν καὶ πατέρα πάντων τὸν θεὸν εἰκότως ὀνομάζομεν, οὐκ ὄντα ἡμῶν φύσει πατέρα, ὡς ἔστιν τοῦ μονογενοῦς αὐτοῦ. καὶ πάλιν· «πνεῦμα κυρίου πεπλήρωκεν τὴν οἰκουμένην, καὶ τὸ συνέχον τὰ πάντα γνῶσιν ἔχει φωνῆς·» ἀντὶ τοῦ περιέλαβεν τὴν ἀόρατον καὶ ὁρατὴν κτίσιν, τὴν νοητὴν καὶ αἰσθητήν, καὶ οὐδὲν τῶν πάντων ἐστὶν ἄμοιρον τῆς ἀιδίου ἐπιστασίας αὐτοῦ· τὸ γὰρ πάντα συνέχειν τοῦτο δηλοῖ. καὶ πάσης, φησίν, ἐπακούει φωνῆς, ὡς θεὸς ἐν πᾶσιν πανταχοῦ ἀεὶ τυγχάνων, καὶ πᾶσαν ὑλικὴν ἀναρμοστίαν εἰς τάξιν περιάγων τὴν πρέπουσαν, καὶ τῶν πρὸς αὐτοῦ ποιηθέντων φειδόμενός τε καὶ ἐπιμελούμενος, ἅτε αὐτὸς τὴν φύσιν πρόνοια ὑπάρχων καὶ σοφία, δι' ὅλων διαπεφοιτηκυῖα, ὡς ὁ πατήρ. τίς γὰρ ὁ τοιαύτην ἔχων γνῶσιν; Ἡσαῖάς τε λέγει οὕτως· «πνεῦμα γνώσεως καὶ εὐσεβείας,» καὶ ὁ ∆αυὶδ προσᾴδει· «ποῦ πορευθῶ ἀπὸ τοῦ προσώπου σου; καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματός σου ποῦ φύγω;» καὶ ὁ δεσπότης δὲ διδάσκων, ὡς ἡ θεότης τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος οὐ περιγράφεται τόπῳ, ἀλλ' ὁμοῦ ἐν οὐρανῷ τέ ἐστιν καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς, πᾶσαν αὐτάρκειαν παρασχόμενον ἀεὶ καὶ παρεχόμενον τῇ κτίσει, ἔφη παρ' Ἰωάννῃ· «ἐὰν ἀγαπᾶτέ με, τὰς ἐντολὰς τὰς ἐμὰς τηρήσατε· κἀγὼ ἐρω τήσω τὸν πατέρα, καὶ ἄλλον παράκλητον δώσει ὑμῖν, ἵνα ᾖ μεθ' ὑμῶν τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας, ὃ ὁ κόσμος οὐ δύναται λαβεῖν, οὐ θεωρεῖ αὐτὸ οὐδὲ γινώσκει αὐτό· ὑμεῖς δὲ γινώσκετε αὐτὸ, ὅτι παρ' ὑμῖν μένει, καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν ἔσται.» ἵνα δὲ γνώριμον γένηται, ὡς τῆς πανταχοῦ παρούσης μιᾶς ἀπείρου φύσεως καὶ αἱ τοιαίδε μαρτυρίαι ἀποφαίνουσιν αὐτό· τὰ ἴσα παρέδοσαν περὶ ἑκατέρας ἀκηράτου ὑποστάσεως, Ἰερεμίας μὲν ἐξηγούμενος ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρός· «τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν ἐγὼ πληρῶ, λέγει κύριος·» ∆αυὶδ δὲ περὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἐν ρμδʹ ψαλμῷ κελαδῶν· «καὶ τῆς μεγαλοσύνης αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἔστιν πέρας·» Παῦλος δὲ κηρύττων περὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ· «ὁ καταβὰς αὐτός ἐστιν καὶ ὁ ἀναβὰς ὑπὲρ ἄνω πάντων τῶν οὐρανῶν, ἵνα πληρώσῃ τὰ πάντα.» 6.3ν ὅτι ἄφθαρτον ἡ κτίσις οὐκ ἄφθαρτος καθάπαξ ἐστίν· ἀλλὰ φθορὰν ἐπιδέχεται, τὴν τροφήν, ἥν φαμεν καὶ μεταβολήν, ὡς ἡ προφητεία λέγει· «ὁ ποιῶν πάντα καὶ μετασκευάζων αὐτά.» ἧς κατακούσαντες τῶν ἔξω σοφοί, φασίν· αὐτὰ λύων εἰς αὐτά, καὶ ἐξ αὐτῶν πάλιν αὔξων. ἡμὲν γὰρ ἀσώματος λογικὴ κτίσις τὴν κατὰ προαίρεσιν ἔχει φθοράν, τοῦ μὲν θεοῦ μόνιμον αὐτῇ φύσιν δεδωκότος, καὶ στήσαντος αὐτὴν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, καὶ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος· αὐτῆς δὲ αὐτοπροαιρέτως μεταβαλλομένης, καὶ εἰς χείρονα ἐκπιπτούσης λῆξιν, καὶ αὐτῷ