NOTE: - 63 -

[...of] their [opinions], namely, the ineffable procession of the Holy Spirit of God. "We accept the procession of the Holy Spirit," say they, "according to the confession of the Illuminator, whereof he saith: 'The Father of Himself, the Son from the Father, the Holy Spirit from Them and in Them'" (in Article 6). Whence did these [men] learn to direct such an imperfect confession toward the all-perfect procession of the Holy Spirit, and with what purpose, beyond the measure of their own personal capacity, have they presumed against the all-powerful, self-existent Divinity of the Holy Spirit of God’s truth? And how did they dare to curtail and mutilate the complete word of the confession of our holy Father Grigor the Illuminator concerning the Holy Spirit God, and to take his intermediate, incomplete words as a testimony to their own desires, in order to establish the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and from the Son? Whereby they have indeed grievously erred and strayed exceedingly from the truth-preaching confession of our holy Father Grigor the Illuminator. For that whole same passage doth not establish the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and from the Son; rather, his entire, perfect, orthodox doctrine looketh unto the perfect confession concerning the consubstantial and indivisible unity of the All-Holy Trinity, and unto the united dominion of the Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For he there preacheth and teacheth us in plain and manifest terms that the Holy Spirit God is co-glorified, co-reigning, and consubstantial with God the Father and the Only-Begotten Son. Let them read and see whether in the words of our holy Father Grigor the Illuminator the procession of the Spirit from the Father and from the Son is [truly] established: "This spoken testimony," saith he, "we have set forth in your hearing, [namely] the holy, true faith which the Holy Scriptures plainly taught us by the Holy Spirit concerning the everlasting kingdom of the Godhead; which was revealed in mystery unto our righteous Fathers, and spake with us through the Son and the Holy Spirit, and was evangelized by the holy Prophets and Apostles, and was given unto us as the confirmation of faith: that by faith we may be justified in one God the Father, and Lord, and Creator of all; and in the Only-Begotten Son, Who is from the Father, and with the Father, and together with the Father; and in the Holy Spirit, Who is of His essence, and through Him He made all creations. Who is one lordship, one power..."