the harmonious testimony of the Divine Scriptures, both Old and New, both those by which Christ was foretold, and those by which He was announced, there is no other name under heaven wheteby men must be saved.^ And when purged from all contagion of corruption, they are placed in peaceful abodes until they take their bodies again, their own, but now incorruptible, to adorn, not to burden them. For this is the will of the best and most wise Creator, that the spirit of a man, when piously subject to God, should have a body happily subject, and that this happiness should last for ever.
45. There we shall see the truth without any difficulty, and shall enjoy it to the full, most clear and most certain. Nor shall we be inquiring into anything by a mind that reasons, but shall discern by a mind that contemplates, why the Holy Spirit is not a Son, although He proceeds from the Father. In that light there will be no place for inquiry: but here, by experience itself it has appeared to me so difficult, — as beyond doubt it will likewise appear to them also who shall carefully and intelligently read what I have written, — that although in the second Book^ I promised that I would speak thereof in another place, yet as often as I have desired to illustrate it by the creaturely image of it which we ourselves are, so often, let my meaning be of what sort it might, did adequate utterance entirely fail me; nay, even in my very meaning I felt that I had attained to endeavour rather than accomplishment. I had indeed found in one person, such as is a man, an image of that Highest Trinity, and had desired, especially in the ninth Book, to illustrate and render more intelligible the relation of the Three Persons by that which is subject to time and change. But three things belonging to one person cannot suit those Three Persons, as man's purpose demands; and this we have demonstrated in this fifteenth Book.
Chap. xxvi. — The Holy Spirit twice given by Christ. The procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and from the Son is apart from time, nor can He he called the Son of both.
Further, in that Highest Trinity which is God, there are no intervials of time, by which it could be shown, or at least CHAP. XXVI.] THE HOLY SPIRIT TWICE GIVEN BY CHRIST. 431 inquired, whether the Son was born of the Father first, and then afterwards the Holy Spirit proceeded from both; since Holy Scripture calls Him the Spirit of both. For it is He of whom the apostle says, " But because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts: " "^ and it is He of whom the same Son says, " For it is not ye who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaketh in you." ^ And it is proved by many other testimonies of the Divine Word, that the Spirit, who is specially called in the Trinity the Holy Spirit, is of the Father and of the Son: of whom likewise the Son Him- self says, "Whom I will send unto you from the Father; " ^ and in another place, " Whom the Father will send in my name." * And we are so taught that He proceeds from both, because the Son Himself says. He proceeds from the Father. And when He had risen from the dead, and had appeared to His dis- ciples, " He breathed upon them, and said, Eeceive the Holy Ghost," ^ so as to show that He proceeded also from Himself. And itself is that very " power that went out from Him," as we read in the Gospel, " and healed them all." ^ 46. But the reason why, after His resurrection. He both gave the Holy Spirit, first on earth,^ and afterwards sent Him from heaven,^ is in my judgment this: that " love is shed abroad in our hearts," ^ by that gift itself, whereby we love God and our neiojhbours, according^ to those two command- ments, "on which hang all the law and the prophets." -^^ And Jesus Christ, in order to signify this, gave to them the Holy Spirit, once upon earth, on account of the love of our neigh- bour, and a second time from heaven, on account of the love of God. And if some other reason may perhaps be given for this double gift of the Holy Spirit, at any rate we ought not to doubt that the same Holy Spirit was given when Jesus breathed upon them, of whom He by and by says, " Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," where this Trinity is especially com- mended to us. It is therefore He who was also given from heaven on the day of Pentecost, i.e. ten days after the Lord 5 John XX. 23.. ^ Luke vL 19. 7 John xx. 22.
432 ox THE TEINITY. [BOOK XV.
ascended into heaven. How, therefore, is He not God, who gives the Holy Spirit? Nay, how great a God is He who gives God! Tor no one of His disciples gave the Holy Spirit, since they prayed that He might come upon those upon whom they laid their hands: they did not give Him themselves. And the Church preserves this custom even now in the case of her rulers. Lastly, Simon Magus also, when he offered the apostles money, does not say, " Give me also this power, that I may give " the Holy Spirit; but, " that on whomsoever I may lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Spirit." Because neither had the Scriptures said before, And Simon, seeing that the apostles gave the Holy Spirit; but it had said, "And Simon, seeing that the Holy Spirit was given by the laying on of the apostles' hands." ^ Therefore also the Lord Jesus Christ Himself not only gave the Holy Spirit as God, but also received it as man, and therefore He is said to be full of grace,^ and of the Holy Spirit.^ And in the Acts of the Apostles it is more plainly written of Him, " Because God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit." ^ Certainly not with visible oil, but with the gift of grace, which is signified by the visible ointment wherewith the Church anoints the baptized. And Christ was certainly not then anointed with the Holy Spirit, when He, as a dove, descended upon Him at His baptism.^ For at that time He deigned to prefigure His body, i.e. His Church, in which especially the baptized receive the Holy Spirit. But He is to be understood to have been then anointed with that mystical and invisible unction, when the Word of God was made flesh,^ i.e. when human nature, without any precedent merits of good w^orks, was joined to God the Word in the womb of the Virgin, so that with it it became one person. Therefore it is that we confess Him to have been born of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin ]\Iary. For it is most absurd to believe Him to have received the Holy Spirit when He was near thirty years old: for at that age He was baptized by John; ^ but that He came to baptism as without any sin at all, so not without the Holy Spirit. For CHAP. XXVI.] PROCESSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IS ETERNAL. 433 if it was written of His servant and forerunner John himself, " He shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb," ^ because, although generated by his father, yet he received the Holy Spirit when formed in the womb; what must be understood and believed of the man Christ, of whose flesh the very conception was not carnal, but spiritual? Both natures, too, as well the human as the divine, are shown in that also that is written of Him, that He received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, and shed forth the Holy Spirit: ^ seeing that He received as man, and shed forth as God. And we indeed can receive that gift according to our small measure, but assuredly we cannot shed it forth upon others; but, that this may be done, we invoke over them God, by whom this is accomplished.
47. Are we therefore able to ask whether the Holy Spirit had already proceeded from the Father when the Son was born, or had not yet proceeded, and when He was born, proceeded from both, wherein there is no such thing as distinct times: just as we have been able to ask, in a case where we do find times, that the will proceeds from the human mind first, in order that that may be sought which, when found, may be called offspring; which offspring being already brought forth or born, that will is made perfect, resting in this end, so that what had been its desire when seeking, is its love when enjoy- ing; which love now proceeds from both, i.e. from the mind that begets, and from the notion that is begotten, as if from parent and offspring? These things it is absolutely impossible to ask in this case, where nothing is begun in time, so as to be perfected in a time following. Wlierefore let him who can understand the generation of the Son from the Father without time, understand also the procession of the Holy Spirit from both without time. And let him who can understand, in that which the Son says, " As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself," ^ not that the Father gave life to the Son already existing without life, but that He so begat Him apart from time, that the life which the Father gave to the Son by begetting Him is co-eternal with the life of the Father who gave it; let him, I say, under- DE TEIN. 2 E 434 ON THE TRINITY. [bOOK XV.
stand, that as the Father has in Himself that the Holy Spirit should proceed from Him, so has He given to the Son that the same Holy Spirit should proceed from Him, and be both apart from time: and that the Holy Spirit is so said to proceed from the Father as that it be understood that His proceeding also from the Son, is a property derived by the Son from the Father. For if the Son has of the Father whatever He has, then certainly He has of the Father, that the Holy Spirit pro- ceeds also from Him. But let no one think of any times therein which imply a sooner and a later; because these things are not there at all. How, then, would it not be most absurd to call Him the Son of both: when, just as generation from the Father, without any changeableness of nature, gives to the Son essence, without beginning of time; so procession from both, without any changeableness of nature, gives to the Holy Spirit essence without beginning of time? For while we do not say that the Holy Spirit is begotten, yet we do not therefore dare to say that He is unbegotten, lest any one suspect in this word either two Fathers in that Trinity, or two who are not from another. For the Father alone is not from another, and therefore He alone is called unbegotten, not indeed in the Scriptures, but in the usage of disputants, who employ such language as they can on so great a subject. And the Son is born of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father principally, and the Father giving it, without any interval of time, in common from both. But He would be called the Son of the Father and of the Son, if — a thing abhorrent to the feeling of all sound minds — both had be- gotten Him. Therefore the Spirit of both is not begotten of both, but proceeds from both.
Chap, xxvii. — What it is that suffices here to solve the question why the Spirit is not said to be begotten, and why the Father alone is unbegotten. What they ought to do who do not understand these things.
48. But because it is most difficult to distinguish generation from procession in that co- eternal, and equal, and incorporeal, and ineffably unchangeable and indivisible Trinity, let it suf- fice meanwhile to put before those who are not able to be drawn on further, what we said upon this subject in a sermon to be delivered in the ears of Christian people, and after saying CHAP. XXVIL] generation AND PROCESSION. 43*5 wrote it down. For when, among other things, I had taught them by testimonies of the Holy Scriptures that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both, I continue: " If, then, the Holy Spirit proceeds both from the Father and from the Son, why did the Son say, 'He proceedeth from the Father'?^ Why, think you, except as He is wont to refer to Him, that also which is His own, from whom also He Himself is? Whence also is that which He saith, ' My doctrine is not mine own, but His that sent me '?''^ If, therefore, it is His doctrine that is here understood, which yet He said was not His own, but His that sent Him, how much more is it there to be under- stood that the Holy Spirit proceeds also from Himself, where He so says. He proceedeth from the Father, as not to say. He proceedeth not from me? From Him, certainly, from whom the Son had his Divine nature, for He is God of God, He has also, that from Him too proceeds the Holy Spirit; and hence the Holy Spirit has from the Father Himself, that He should proceed from the Son also, as He proceeds from the Father. Here, too, in some way may this also be understood, so far as it can be understood by such as we are, why the Holy Spirit is not said to be born, but rather to proceed; since if He, too, was called a Son, He would certainly be called the Son of both, which is most absurd, since no one is son of two, save of father and mother. But far be it from us to surmise, any such thing as this between God the Father and God the Son. Because not even the son of men proceeds at the same time from both father and mother; but when he proceeds from the father into the mother, he does not at that time proceed from the mother; and when he proceeds from the mother into this present light, he does not at that time proceed from the father. But the Holy Spirit does not proceed from the Father into the Son, and from the Son proceed to sanctify the creature, but proceeds at once from both; although the Father has given this to the Son, that He should proceed, as from Himself, so also from Him. For we cannot say that the Holy Spirit is not life, while the Father is life, and the Son is life: and hence as the Father, while He has life in Himself, has given also to the Son to have life in Himself; so has He given also 436 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK XV.
to Him that life should proceed from Him, as it also proceeds from Himself.""^ I have transferred this from that sermon into this book, but I was speaking to believers, not to unbelievers. 49. But if they are not competent to gaze upon this image, and to see how true these things are which are in their mind, and yet which are not so three as to be three persons, but all three belong to a man who is one person; why do they not believe what they find in the sacred books respecting that highest Trinity which is God, rather than insist on the' clearest reason being rendered them, which cannot be comprehended by the human mind, dull and infirm as it is? And to be sure, when they have stedfastly believed the Holy Scriptures as most true witnesses, let them strive, by praying and seeking and living well, that they may understand, i.e. that so far as it can be seen, that may be seen by the mind which is held fast by faith. Who would forbid this? IsTay, who would not rather exhort them to it? But if they think they ought to deny that these things are, because they, with their blind minds, cannot discern them, they, too, who are blind from their birth, ought to deny that there is a sun. The light then shineth in darkness; but if the darkness comprehend it not,^ let them first be illuminated by the gift of God, that they may be believers, and let them begin to be light in compari- son with the unbelievers; and when this foundation is first laid, let them be built up to see what they believe, that at some time they may be able to see. For some things are so believed, that they cannot be seen at all. For Christ is not to be seen a second time on the cross; but unless this be believed which has been so done and seen, that it is not now to be hoped for as about to be and to be seen, there is no coming to Christ, such as without end He is to be seen. But as far as relates to the discerning in some way by the under- standing that highest, ineffable, incorporeal, and unchangeable nature, the sight of the human mind can nowhere better exer- cise itself, so only that the rule of faith govern it, than in that which man himself has in his own nature better than the other animals, better also than the other parts of his own soul, which is the mind itself, to which has been assigned a certain sight CHAP. XXVII.] RELATIONS IN THE TRINITY INCOMPREHENSIBLE. 437 of things invisible, and to which, as though honourably pre- siding in a higher and inner place, the bodily senses also bring word of all things, that they may be judged, and than which there is no higher, to which it is to be subject, and by which it is to be governed, except God.
60. But among these many things which I have now said, and of which there is nothing that I dare to profess myself to have said worthy of the ineffableness of that highest Trinity, but rather to confess that the wonderful knowledge of Him is too great for me, and that I cannot attain -^ to it: 0 thou, my soul, where dost thou feel thyself to be? where dost thou lie? where dost thou stand? until all thy infirmities be healed by Him who has forgiven all thy iniquities.^ Thou perceivest thyself assuredly to be in that inn whither that Samaritan brought him whom he found with many wounds inflicted by thieves, half-dead.^ And yet thou hast seen many things that are true, not by those eyes by which coloured objects are seen, but by those for which he prayed who said, " Let mine eyes behold the things that are equal."* Certainly, then, thou hast seen many things that are true, and hast distinguished them from that light by the light of which thou hast seen them. Lift up thine eyes to the light itself, and fix them upon it if thou canst. For so thou wilt see how the birth of the Word of God differs from the procession of the Gift of God, on account of which the only -begotten Son did not say that the Holy Spirit is begotten of the Father, otherwise He would be His brother, but that He proceeds from Him. Whence, since the Spirit of both is a kind of consubstantial communion of Father and Son, He is not called, far be it from us to say so, the Son of both. But thou canst not fix thy sight there, so as to discern this lucidly and clearly; I know thou canst not. I say the truth, I say to myself, I know what I cannot do; yet that light itself shows to thee these three things in thyself, wherein thou mayest recognise an image of the highest Trinity itself, which thou canst not yet contemplate with steady eye. Itself shows to thee that there is in thee a true word, when it is born of thy knowledge, i.e. when we say what we know: although we neither utter nor think of any articulate 438 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK XV.
word that is significant in any tongue of any nation, but our thought is formed by that which we know; and there is in the mind's eye of the thinker an image resembling that thought which the memory contained, will or love as a third combining these two as parent and offspring. And he who can, sees and discerns that this will proceeds indeed from thought (for no one wills that of which he is absolutely ignorant what or of what sort it is), yet is not an image of the thoucrht: and so that there is insinuated in this intelli- gible thing a sort of difference between birth and procession, since to behold by thought is not the same as to desire, or even to enjoy will. Thou, too, hast been able [to discern this], although thou hast not been, neither art, able to un- fold with adequate speech what, amidst the clouds of bodily likenesses, which cease not to flit up and down before human thoughts, thou hast scarcely seen. But that light which is not thyself shows thee this too, that these incorporeal likenesses of bodies are different from the truth, which, by rejecting them, we contemplate with the understanding. These, and other things similarly certain, that light hath shown to thine inner eyes. What reason, then, is there why thou canst not see that light itself with steady eye, except certainly infirmity? And what has produced this in thee, except iniquity? Who, then, is it that healeth all thine infirmities, unless it be He that forgiveth all thine iniquities? And therefore I will now at length finish this book by a prayer better than by an argument.
Chap, xxviii. — The concluslon of the Booh ivUh a jjrayer, and an apology for multitude of words.
51. 0 Lord our God, we believe in Thee, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For the truth would not say. Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, unless Thou wast a Trinity. Nor wouldest Thou, 0 Lord God, bid us be baptized in the name of Him who is not the Lord God. Nor would the divine voice / have said. Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord thy God is one God, unless "^ Thou wert so^ Trinity as to be one Lord God. And if Thou, 0 God, wer^Thyself the Father, and wert Thyself the Son, Thy WpM^Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit your gift, wo CHAP. XXVIII.] CONCLUDING PRAYER. 439 should not read in the book of truth, " God sent His Son;"^ nor wouldest Thou, 0 Only-begotten, say of the Holy Spirit, " Whom the Father will send in my name; " ^ and, " Whom I will send to you from the Father."^ Directing my purpose by this rule of faith, so far as I have been able, so far as Thou hast made me to be able, I have sought Thee, and have desired to see with my understanding what I believed; and I have argued and laboured much. 0 Lord my God, my one hope, hearken to me, lest through weariness I be unwilling to seek Thee, " but that I may always ardently seek Thy face." * Do Thou give strength to seek, who hast made me find Thee, and hast given the hope of finding Thee more and more. My strength and my infirmity are in Thy sight: preserve the one, and heal the other. My knowledge and my ignorance are in Thy sight; where Thou hast opened to me, receive me as I enter; where Thou hast closed, open to me as I knock. May I remember Thee, understand Thee, love Thee. Increase these things in me, until Thou, renewest me wholly. I know it is written, " In the multitude of speech, thou shalt not escape sin."^ But 0 that I might speak only in preaching Thy word, and in praising Thee! Not only should I so flee from