23. Now there are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but the same Qod, who worketh all in all...But all these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to e"Pery one according as he will (1 Cor. xii, 4, 5, 6, 11). This text clearly declares the Holy Ghost to be God, as well by saying that the Holy Ghost works what it has previously said that God works, as also by the declaration of His working according to the arbitre- ment of His own will. J * This argument is confidently urged by St Am- is another reading, Ocov, adopted by Westcott and brose, T>e Spiritu SanSo, ii, 6, from whom St Thomas Hort. St Thomas was a stranger to this reading, but takes it. The value of it depends on a variant reading it is the making of his argument, ol trvtvfian 6cov in the Greek. The textus receptus has ol tryevfxaTi 0e$ Xarpevovreg can only mean ' we who serve the Spirit Xarpcvovres; and such must have been the reading of of God.' I am inclined, however, to think that the St Chrysostom, who explains irvev/xari, tovtIotiv, Vulgate is right, that dey is the reading, that wvivfiari irv€VfAaTucu>s: with this interpretation, he cannot have means Trycv/uarucw?, and that the argument is un- read Otov, as MSS. represent him. The Vulgate agrees, tenable.
qui spiritu Deo servimus, i we who in spirit serve the t In these and many similar texts, e.g., 2 Thess.
Lord.' So too a Lapide. With this reading, 0e£, ii, 1 3, it is difficult to decide whether the spirit spoken which St Thomas also supposes, the interpretation of is the Holy Ghost or the sanctified spirit of man.
which he gives cannot stand. We who serve the Spirit However, the spirit of man is sanctified only by the as God, would require ol 0cf r£ wvtvpaTi Xarpcvovrts. action, and even indwelling, of the Holy Ghost.
For the text as it stands, 4 we who serve God as a I " Under the names of Spirit, Lord, and god, we Spirit,' is quite a possible translation (cf. John iv, 24), have here mentioned the Holy Ghost, the Son, and though that is not to St Thomas's purpose. But there the Father. Cf. 2 Cor. xiii, 13. (graces, ministries, and OF GOD IN HIS REVELATION CHAPTER XVIII- That the Holy Ghost is a Subsistent Person BUT inasmuch as some have maintained that the Holy Ghost is not a subsistent Person, but is either the divinity of the Father and the Son (cf. St Aug. de haresibus^ n. 52), or some accidental perfection of the mind given us by God, as wisdom, or charity, or other such created acci- dents, we must evince the contrary.
1. Accidental forms do not properly work, but the subjeft that has them works according to the arbitrement of his own will: thus a wise man us*s wisdom when he wills. But the Holy Ghost works according to the arbitre- ment of His own will (1 Cor. xii, 11).
2. The Holy Ghost is not to be accounted an accidental perfection of the human mind, seeing that He is the cause of such perfections: for the charity of God is spread abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us (Rom. v, 5): To one is given by the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit (1 Cor. xii, 8).
3. The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and receives from the Son (John xv, 26: xvi, 14): which cannot be understood of the divine essence.
4. Scripture speaks of the Holy Ghost as of a subsistent Person: The Holy Ghost said to them: Set aside Jor me Barnabas and Saul for the Work unto which I have taken them:...and they, sent by the Holy Ghost, went (ACts xiii, 2, 4): // hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us (ACts xv, 28).
5. The Father and the Son being subsistent Persons and of divine nature, the Holy Ghost would not be numbered with them (Matt, xxviii, 19:2 Cor. xiii, 13:1 John v, 7) were He not a Person subsistent in the divine nature.
CHAPTER XX-Oftbe Effects which the Scriptures attribute to the Holy Ghost in respeEi of the who/e Creation THE love wherewith God loves His own goodness is the cause of the creation of things (B. I, Chap. LXXXVI); and it is laid down that the Holy Ghost proceeds as the love wherewith God loves Himself. Therefore the Holy Ghost is the principle of the creation of things; and this is signified in Ps. ciii, 30: Send forth thy spirit and they shall be created. Again, as the Holy Ghost proceeds as love, and love is an impulsive and motor power, the motion that is from God in things is appropriately attributed to the Holy Ghost. But the first motion, or change, coming from God in things is the production of the diversity of species from matter created formless {ex materia creata informi species diver sas produxit). This work the Scripture attributes to the Holy Ghost: The Spirit of God moved over the waters (Gen. i, 2).* By the the waters Augustine wishes to be understood primordial matter. The Spirit of the Lord is said to move over them, not as being in motion Himself, but as the principle of motion. The government of creation also is operations, are all one and the same thing, the extra- one which St Thomas was not unwilling to take ordinary manifestations of divine indwelling which account of, as he presently says (Chap. XXIII): then followed upon baptism, all the work of one and "Although some wish to understand this, not of the the same God " (Notes on St Paul, p. 93). Holy Ghost, but of the air, which has its natural # Moved, or as another version has it, brooded, place over the water: hence, to signify its manifold which is better in keeping with the character of the transformations, it is said that it was borne oyer the Holy Ghost as the ' giver of life.' I need only mention waters" Nor can I deal with the vexed question as to the other translation of Spiritus Dei as a mighty wind, a what notion the human authors of the Old Testa- translation as old as St Ephrem and Theodoret; and ment had of the triple personality of God.
fitly assigned to the Holy Ghost, as government is the moving and directing of things to their proper ends. And because the governing of subjefrs is an a£t proper to a lord, lordship too is aptly attributed to the Holy Ghost: the Spirit is Lord (i Cor. iii, 17).* Life also particularly appears in movement. As then impulse and move- ment by reason of love are proper to the Holy Spirit, so too is life fitly attributed to Him, as it is said: // is the Spirit that quickeneth (John vi, 64: CHAPTER XXl-Ofthe EffeBs attributed to the. Holy Ghost in Scripture in the way of Gifts bestowed on the Rational Creature SINCE the Father, Son and Holy Ghost have the same power, as they have the same essence, everything that God works in us must be by the efficient causation of Father, Son and Holy Ghost together. But the word of wisdom, sent us by God, whereby we know God, is properly representative of the Son; and the love, wherewith we love God, is properly representative of the Holy Ghost. Thus the charity that is in us, though it is the effedt of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, is in a certain special aspett said to be in us through the Holy Ghost. But since divine eflfe&s not only begin by divine operation, but are also sustained in being by the same, and nothing operates where it is not,t it needs must follow that wherever there is any effect wrought by God, there is God Himself who works it. \ Hence, since the charity wherewith we love God is in us through the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost Himself must be in us, so long as charity is in us. Know ye not that ye are the temple of Qod, and the Holy Qhost dwelletb in you? (1 Cor. iii, 16.) And through the Holy Ghost the Father and Son also dwell in us. Hence the Lord says: We will come to him, and take up our abode with him (John xiv, 23). Cf. 1 John iv, 13, 16.
It is a point of friendship to reveal one's secrets to one's friend: for as friendship unites affections, and makes of two as it were one heart, a man may well seem not to have uttered beyond his own heart what he has revealed to his frend. Hence the Lord says to His disciples: I will not call you servants, but friends, because all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you (John xv, 15). Since then by the Holy Ghost we are constituted friends of God, the revelation of divine mysteries to men is fittingly said to take place through the Holy Ghost: To us God has revealed them through the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. ii, 10). Besides the revealing of one's * o U tcvpioQ to wvfvfid ttrnvj means now the Lord term whither it goes, or to both? e.g., is the sun in is the Spirit: that is to say, the Lord, mentioned in the any sense present on the earth? The mind is present previous verse, 16, — even the Yahweh of Exodus in the body: is it not present too, although with a xxxiv, 34, to which that verse refers, — // the Holy different presence, in the fixed stars, when it thinks Ghost. This is a statement of the divinity of the Holy about them? The presence of God, as St Thomas Ghost in so many words, as the Greek Fathers ela- well lays down (B. Ill, Chap. LXVIII), is best borately argue, and as St Thomas would not have defined by His action. 'Where God acts, God is': failed to argue, had he been more familiar with that statement of the axiom is sufficient for the argu- Greek. ment in this case.
t 'Nothing operates where it is not,' is therejec- I And the higher the effect, the fuller the pretion of afiio in distans. The axiom has been disputed, sence. There is more of God in the war-horse than especially since the discovery of the law of gravita- in the worm, more of Him in mind than in matter; tion. Presence has been distinguished into ' local ' and, what is to the point here, there is a presence of and ' virtual a distinction coming near to that con- God in the just which is denied to the wicked, the veyed by the two Latin verbs, adsum and intersum. presence that goes with sanctifying grace (B. Ill, Presence indeed is not easy to define. Does presence Chapp. CLI, CLII). belong to the term whence action comes, or to the secrets to one's friend, which is part of the union of affe&ions that goes with friendship, there is a further requisite of the same union, to share one's possessions with one's friend, according to i John iii, 17. And therefore all the gifts of God arc said to be given us by the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. xii, 7-1 1). And by such gifts of the Spirit we are conformed to God, and by Him rendered apt to the performance of good works, and our way is thereby paved to happiness: which three effects the Apostle declares: Qod hath anointed us, and sealed us, and given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts (2 Cor. i, 21, 22: cf. Eph. i, 13, 14), The sealing may be taken to imply the like- ness of conformity to God: the anointing, the fitting of man to do perfedt a<5ts: the pledge, the hope whereby we are set on the way to the heavenly inheritance of life everlasting.
And because good will towards a person leads at times to the adoption of him as a son, that so the inheritance may belong to him, the adoption of the sons of God is properly attributed to the Holy Ghost: Ye hate received the spirit of adoption of sons, wherein we cry, Abba, Father (Rom. viii, 15).
Again, by admission to friendship all offence is removed. Since then we arc rendered sons of God through the Holy Ghost, through Him also our sins are forgiven us by God; and therefore the Lord says: Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins ye shall forgive, they are forgiven them (John xx, 22). And therefore forgiveness is denied to them who blaspheme against the Holy Ghost (Matt, xii, 31), as to persons who have not that whereby man attains the forgiveness of his sins.* CHAPTER XXll-Ofthe Effe&s attributed to the Holy Ghost in the AttraEiion of the Rational Qreation to God IT is a mark of friendship to take delight in the company of one's friend, to rejoice at what he says and does, and to find in him comfort and con- solation against all troubles: hence it is in our griefs especially that we fly to our friends for comfort. Since then the Holy Ghost renders us friends of God, making Him to dwell in us and we in Him, we have through the same Holy Spirit joy in God and comfort under all the adversities and assaults of the world: hence it is said: Qhe me bacl( the joy of thy salvation, and strengthen me with thy guiding Spirit (Ps. 1, 14): The kingdom of God is justice and peace and joy in the Holy Qbost (Rom. xiv, 17): The Church had peace, and was edi- fied, walking in the fear of the Lord, and filled with the consolation of the Holy Ghost (Acts ix, 31).
Another mark of friendship is to fall in with a friend's wishes. Now God's wishes are unfolded to us by His commandments, the keeping of which therefore is part of our love of God: If ye love me, keep my commandments (John xiv, 15). As then we are rendered lovers of God by the Holy Ghost, by Him we are also led to fulfil God's commandments: Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, the same are the sons of God (Rom. viii, 14). But it is a note- worthy point that the sons of God are led by the Holy Ghost, not as bondsmen, but as free. He is free, who is a cause unto himself;t and we do # Ipse est remissio omnium peccatorum, " He (the {ad fin. in the Latin); also B. II, Chap. XLVIII, n. 2, Holy Ghost) is the forgiveness of all sins " (Post- where the same definition is quoted. But turning to communion for Whit Tuesday). the original, Aristotle, Metaph. I, 11, e\evd epos tivQpvTos t Liber y qui sui causa est. That causa is meant by St 6 avrov rvcKa kqI pi) aWov &v (he is a free man, who Thomas for the nominative case, is clear from the is for his own sake, and not for the sake of another), context here, as also from B. I, Chap. LXXXVIII we find sui causa, avrov evc*a, ' for his own sake.'
that freely which we do of ourselves, that is, of our own willing; but what we do against our will, we do, not freely, but after the manner of bonds- men. The Holy Ghost then, rendering us lovers of God, inclines us to a<5t of our own will, freely, out of love, not as bondsmen prompted by fear. Te have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption as sons (Rom. viii, 15). True good being the obje6l of the will, whenever a man turns away from true good under the influence of passion or ill habit, and so is swayed by a power foreign to his proper self, he in that respedt behaves like a bondsman. On the other hand, if we consider his a<5t as a genuine aft of his will, inclined to what is good for him in his own eyes, although not really good, he a6ts freely in thus following passion or corrupt habit. But again he a<5ls like a bondsman, if, while the volition of fancied good just mentioned remains, he nevertheless abstains from what he wills for fear of the law enacted to the contrary. Since then the Holy Ghost inclines the will by love to true good, its natural objedt, He takes away alike the servitude whereby, a slave to passion and sin, man a6ts against the due order of his will, and that other servitude whereby man adts accord- ing to the law, but against the motion of his will, like a slave of the law and no friend to it. Hence the Apostle says: Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Cor. iii, 1 7): If ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the CHAPTER XXIII— Replies to Arguments alleged against the Divinity of the Holy Qhost CHAP. XVI. It was the position of Arius that the Son and Holy Ghost were creatures, the Son however being greater than the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost being His minister, even as he said the Son was to the Father.f After Arius came Macedonius, who was orthodox on the point of the Father and Son being of one and the same substance, but refused to believe the same of the Holy Ghost, and said that He was a creature.
Chap. XXIII. 2. He shall not speak of himself but whatsoever things he shall hear, he shall speak (John xvi, 13). Since all the knowledge and power and action of God is the essence of God, all the knowledge and power and aftion of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is from another; but that of the Son is from the Father only, that of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son. To hear then, on the part of the Holy Ghost, signifies His taking knowledge, as He takes essence, from the Father and the Son.
3. The Son of God is said to have been sent in this sense, that He ap- peared to man in visible flesh; and thus came to be in the world in a new way, in which He had not been before, namely, visibly, although He had always been there invisibly as God. And the Son's doing this came to Him of His Father: hence in this respedt He is said to be csent ' by the Father. In like manner the Holy Ghost too appeared visibly both in the appearance of a dove over Christ in His baptism, and in fiery tongues over the Apostles; and though He did not become a dove or fire, still He appeared under such visible appearances as signs of Himself. And thus He too came to be in a * Not under the law that threatens slaves, but under subdeacon at High Mass. The Macedonius next mcnthe Spirit that leads the children of God. Cf. Rom. tioned was a bishop at Constantinople in the middle vi, 14: viii, 2. of the fourth century. He was surnamed 6 irvtv/iarot Like the arrangement of priest, deacon, and na\0Q (the fighter against the Spirit).
new way in the world, visibly; and this He had of the Father and of the Son, hence He is said to be 4 sent ' by the Father and the Son, which does not imply inferiority in Him, but procession.* — There is yet another way in which the Holy Ghost is said to be 4 sent,' and that invisibly. The Son proceeds from the Father as the knowledge wherewith God knows Himself; and the Holy Ghost proceeds from Father and Son as the love wherewith God loves Himself. Hence when through the Holy Ghost one is made a lover of God, the Holy Ghost is an indweller in him; and thus He comes to be in a new way in man, in point of the new special effe<5t of His indwell- ing in man. Now that the Holy Ghost works this effett in man, comes to Him of the Father and the Son; and therefore He is said to be invisibly sent by Father and Son.
4. Nor is the Holy Ghost excluded from the Divinity by the occasional mention of the Father and the Son without the Holy Ghost (Matt, xi, 27: John xvii, 3: Rom. i, 7: 1 Cor. viii, 6): for hereby the Scripture silently intimates that whatever attribute of divinity is predicated of one of the three, must be understood of them all, seeing that they are one God. God the Father can never be taken to be without the Word and without Love; and the Word and Love cannot be taken to be without the Father. Hence it is said of the Son: No one knoweth the Father but the Son (Matt, xi, 27): so it is also said of the Holy Ghost: The things that are of God, none knoweth but the Spirit of Qod (1 Cor. ii, 11): though it is certain that neither the Father nor the Son is excluded from this knowledge of divine things.
7. Habitually in Holy Scripture the language of human passion is applied to God (B. I, Chapp. LXXXIX-LXCI). Thus it is said: The Lord was angered in fury against his people (Ps. cv, 40): for He punishes, as men in anger do: hence it is added: And gave them over into the hands of the Gentiles. So in the text, Sadden not the Holy Spirit of God (Eph. iv, 30), the Holy Ghost is said to be saddened, because He abandons sinners; as men, when they are saddened and annoyed, forsake the company of them that annoy them.
8. Another customary phraseology of Holy Scripture is the attributing of that to God, which He produces in man. So it is said: The Spirit himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings (Rom. viii, 26): because He makes us ask, for He produces in our hearts the love of God, whereby we desire to enjoy Him and ask according to our desire.f 9. Since the Holy Ghost proceeds as the love wherewith God loves Him- self; and since God loves with the same love Himself and other beings for the sake of His own goodness (B. I, Chapp. LXXV, LXXVI,); it is clear that the love wherewith God loves us belongs to the Holy Ghost. In like manner also the love wherewith we love God. In respect of both these loves the Holy Ghost is well said to be given. In respect of the love wherewith God loves us, He may be said to be given, in the sense in which one is said to give his love to another, when he begins to love him. Only, be it observed, there is no beginning in time for God's love of any one, if we regard the act of * The miraculous gifts, usual in the early Church and the appearances of the Baptismal Dove and the (1 Cor. xii, xiv), were part of this visible mission of Pentecostal Fire have become events of remote antithe Holy Ghost: cf. A&s x, 44-46. Indeed we may quity.
say that the visible Church down to the present day t " The word asketh means that He makes us ask, is a continuation of that visible mission of the Spirit, and breathes upon us the impulse of asking and groanwho abides with the Church for ever (John xiv, 16), ingy according to the text (Matt, x, 20); // is not you animating and informing the body of the Church, that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in and who in that body is still made manifest to the you 99 (St Augustine), world, after the miraculous charismata have ceased, divine will loving us; but the effedl of His love is caused in time in the crea- ture whom He draws to Himself. Again, in respedt of the love wherewith we love God, the Holy Ghost may be said to be given us, because this love is produced in us by the Holy Ghost, who by reason of this love dwells in us, and so we possess Him and enjoy His support. And since the Holy Ghost has it of the Father and the Son that He is in us and is possessed by us, therefore He is aptly said to be given us by the Father and the Son. Tour Father from heaven will give the good Spirit to them that ask Aim (Luke xi, 13: cf. Adts v, 32: John xv, 26). Nor does this argue Him to be less than the Father and the Son, but only to have His origin from them.
11. It is reasonable that in the case of the divine nature alone nature should be communicated in more modes than the one mode of generation. In God alone a6t and being are identical: hence since there is in God, as in every intelligent nature, both intelligence and will, alike that which pro- ceeds in Him as intelligence, to wit, the Word, and that proceeds in Him as love and will, to wit, Love, must have divine being and be God: thus as well the Son as the Holy Ghost is true God.
CHAPTER XXIV- That the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son* IF any man hate not the Spirit of Christy he is not of him (Rom. viii, 9). These words of the Apostle show that the same Spirit is of the Father and of the Son: for the text alleged follows upon these words imme- diately preceding: If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now it cannot be said that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit merely of the man Christ (Luke iv, 3): for from Gal. iv, 6, Since ye are sons, Qod hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, it appears that the Holy Ghost makes sons of God inasmuch as He is the Spirit of the Son of God, — sons of God, that is to say, by adoption, which means assimilation to Him who is Son of God by nature. For so the text has it: He hath predestined (them) to become conformable to the image of his Son, that be may be the first-born among many brethren (Rom. viii, 29). But the Holy Ghost cannot be called the Spirit of the Son of God except as taking His origin from Him: for this distinction of origin is the only one admissible in the Godhead.
2. The Holy Ghost is sent by the Son: When the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father (John xv, 26). Now the sender has some authority {auftoritatem) over the sent. We must say then that the Son has some authority in respeft of the Holy Ghost. Now that cannot be an authority of dominion, superiority, or seniority: it can only be an authority in point of origin. So then the Holy Ghost is from the Son. But if any one will have it that the Son also is sent by the Holy Ghost, according to the text (Luke iv, 18) where the Lord said that the saying of Isaias (lxi, 1) was fulfilled in Him: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me: to preach glad tidings to the poor he hath sent me: we must observe that it is in respect of the nature which He has assumed that the Son is said to be sent by the Holy Ghost [cf. A6ls x, 38]: but the Holy Ghost has assumed no such nature, that the Son in point thereof should send Him or have authority regarding Him.
3. The Son says of the Holy Ghost: He shall glorify me, because he shall receive of mine (John xvi, 14). Now it cannot be maintained that He shall * Against the Greeks, who will have Him to proceed from the Father only, refusing the FiUoqne in our version of the»Nicene Creed, qui ex Patre Filioque p roc edit.
receive that which belongs to the Son, namely, the divine essence, but not receive it of the Son, but only of the Father: for it follows, All things what- soever that the Father hath are mine: therefore did I say to you that he shall receive of mine: for if all things that the Father has belong to the Son, the authority of the Father, whereby He is the principle of the Holy Ghost, must belong likewise to the Son.
7. The Son is from the Father, and so too is the Holy Ghost. The Father then must be related to the Son and to the Holy Ghost as a principle to that which is of the principle. Now He is related to the Son in the way of paternity, but not so to the Holy Ghost, otherwise the Holy Ghost would be the Son. There must then be in the Father another relation, which relates Him to the Holy Ghost; and that relation is called 'spiration.' In like manner, as there is in the Son a relation which relates Him to the Father, and is called 'filia- tion,' there must be in the Holy Ghost too a relation which relates Him to the Father, and is called 1 procession.' And thus in point of the origin of the Son from the Father there are two relations, one in the originator, the other in the orginated, namely, paternity and filiation; and other two in point of the origin of the Holy Ghost, namely, spiration and procession. Now paternity and spiration do not constitute two persons, but belong to the one person of the Father, because they are not opposed one to the other. Neither then would filiation and procession constitute two persons, but would belong to one person, but for the faCt of their being opposed one to the other. But it is impossible to assign any other opposition than that which is in point of origin. There must then be an opposition in point of origin between the Son and the Holy Ghost, so that one is from the other.