Spirit Cannot Enter Spirit, and God Alone Is Bodiless

For even if spirit mingles with this coarse and solid matter, the flesh, as very easily happens, should we therefore believe that it can be united to the soul, which is likewise spirit, in such a way as to make the soul receptive of its own nature in the same way? That is possible for the Trinity alone. The Trinity so pervades every intellectual nature that it can not only embrace and surround it, but even enter into it, and, bodiless as it is, be poured into a body. For although we hold that some natures are spiritual, such as angels, archangels and the other powers, and indeed our own souls and the thin air, we certainly ought not to consider them bodiless. In their own fashion they have a body in which they exist, though it is much finer than our bodies. So the apostle says, “And there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies”; and again, “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” From this it is clearly gathered that nothing is bodiless but God alone. Therefore all spiritual and intellectual substances can be pervaded by him alone, because he alone is whole, everywhere and in all things, so that he beholds and sees the thoughts of men, their inner movements, and all the hidden places of the soul. For it was of him alone that the blessed apostle spoke when he said: “For the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and it discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is unseen in his sight, but all things are naked and open to his eyes.” And the blessed David says, “He who fashions their hearts one by one,” and again, “For he knows the secrets of the heart.” And Job too: “You who alone know the hearts of men.” [a]