Letter 60: Many people mock you as a grudge-bearer, and rightly so — for you use anger as a weapon of petty revenge.

To Leonius. On the same subject. That the blasphemy is against the Holy Spirit, as you said [referring to a previous letter, no. 58], is clear from the very utterance of the Lord, who says, "Whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him." And that the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is punished is plain. But that the Holy Spirit is of the divine essence-this you asked to have made clear from Scripture. It is open to you, being quick of mind and going forward a little, to find the solution also from the very utterances of the Lord that are at hand. "If I," he says, "cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out?" But "if I cast these out by the Spirit of God, then surely the kingdom of God has come upon you." In the other place the evangelist, speaking more plainly, says, "But if I cast out the demons by the finger of God"-calling the Holy Spirit the "finger of God." And the finger, as in the example drawn from ourselves, belongs to the essence of the body. Therefore by the name of "finger" he made manifest the inseparable subsistence of the Holy Spirit, akin to the divine essence.

Εἰς τὸ αὐτό. Ὅτι μὲν ἔφης (58), κατὰ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος ἡ βλασφημία, δῆλον ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς τοῦ Κυρίου φωνῆς λεγούσης, «Ὃς ἂν εἴποι κατὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου, οὐκ ἀφεθήσεται αὐτῷ.» Καὶ ὅτι ἡ κατὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου ἐκδικεῖται ἡ βλασφημία, σαφές. Ὅτι δὲ τῆς θείας ἐστὶ τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον οὐσίας, τοῦτο σὺ ᾔτησας Γραφικῶς τρανωθῆναι. Ἔξεστί σοι ἀγχινοῦντι καὶ μικρὸν προελθόντι ἐκ τῶν ἐν χερσὶ τοῦ Κυρίου φωνῶν καὶ τὴν λύσιν εὑρεῖν. «Εἰ ἐγώ, φησὶν, ἐν [τῷ] Βεελζεβοὺλ ἐκβάλλω τὰ δαιμόνια, οἱ υἱοὶ ὑμῶν ἐν τίνι ἐκβάλλουσιν;» Εἰ δὲ πνεύματι Θεοῦ ἐκβάλλω ταῦτα, ἆρα ἔφθασεν ἐφ’ ὑμᾶς ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ἐν τῷ ἑτέρῳ σαφέστερον εἰρηκὼς εὐαγγελιστής, «Εἰ δὲ ἐν δακτύλῳ Θεοῦ ἐκβάλλω τὰ δαιμόνια.» Δάκτυλον Θεοῦ, τὸ Πνεῦμα λέγων τὸ ἅγιον. Δάκτυλος δὲ, ὡς ἐν ὑποδείγματι τῷ καθ’ ἡμᾶς, τῆς οὐσίας ἐστὶ τοῦ σώματος. Τὴν τοίνυν ἀχώριστον καὶ συγγενῆ τῆς θείας οὐσίας τοῦ Πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου ὑπόστασιν, τῷ τοῦ δακτύλου ὀνόματι ἐφανέρωσε.