De Spiritu Sancto Libri Duo

A.D. 491–512. PASCHASIUS THE DEACON.

PROLEGOMENON.

(From Cave.)

Paschasius, deacon of the Roman Church, flourished at the beginning of this century, in the year 501. While the Roman schism was raging in the year 498, he strenuously defended the party of Laurentius against Symmachus, and contended obstinately for his cause even to the end of his life. He died in the year 512. On this occasion Gregory, or whoever was the author of the Dialogues, relates to us a quite charming story about the soul of Paschasius burned in the flames of Purgatory. There survives a Letter of Paschasius to Eugippius, prefixed to the Life of St. Severinus, in Surius for January and in Baronius at the year 496. There are also extant his Two Books on the Holy Spirit, against Macedonius, Cologne, 1539, in octavo, Helmstedt, 1613, and in the Bibliotheca Patrum, volume VIII, page 806. Casimir Oudin utterly denies that these are by Paschasius and contends that they must be attributed to Faustus of Riez. Indeed, his arguments do not seem wholly to be despised, which can be seen in his Supplementum, page 107. Since, however, these most choice and brilliant books (to use Gregory's words) rely on the testimony of Gregory, who expressly attributes them to Paschasius the deacon (and certainly Oudin himself acknowledges that the authority of the Dialogues is very great in this matter), so that I need say nothing now about Sigebert of Gembloux (chapter 17), they are not to be rashly taken away from our Paschasius. Nor do certain manuscripts stand in the way.

titles, which have been affixed through the carelessness of copyists and not rarely deceive incautious readers: especially since Gennadius has recorded that Faustus wrote a book on the Holy Spirit (Ch. 85). And Trithemius himself, whom Oudinus cites as a witness in his favor, clearly ascribes these very books, of which Gregory makes mention, to our Paschasius; although, while treating of another matter, he incautiously attached the opening words of this work to that single book which Faustus wrote on this subject.

THE TWO BOOKS OF PASCHASIUS THE DEACON ON THE HOLY SPIRIT.

PREFACE.

The catholic faith has been spread throughout the whole world through the patriarchs and prophets and the dispensers of grace, with the Holy Spirit prompting it. This faith the apostolic care and perfection, just as it had spread it abroad through the sacred pages, so it gathered together in the saving Symbol with wondrous brevity, and as it were arranged it into one body under various kinds of remedies, and as if from countless spices compounded a precious ointment, whose odor has filled all the ends of the earth with the power of its spiritual fragrance, so that in that very ascent of the universe the virtue of truth may appear. And because it is fitting that for those who err, as it were little children and the ignorant, we repeat the first elements of the Christian tradition (on these see Ambrose, book I On Abraham, chapter 2, and Prudentius), in this perfection of the Symbol both the unity is plainly revealed, and the Trinity, in that the confession three times repeated to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, renders one service of belief.

In these words also the sacred number of the three hundred and eighteen priests condemned the rising errors of Arius and Macedonius, saying: I believe in God the Father, I believe in His only Son our Lord. I believe also in the Holy Spirit. For even if the frailty of a few has declined from this number, it has not dissolved the mystery of the universal number. And therefore we have said this number, because three hundred by pure Greek reckoning show the sign of the cross, while eighteen show the adorable name of Jesus. In this mystery of number, then, in which also the holy Abraham triumphed over innumerable nations, the piety of the elders confounds the enemy of the faith under the one proclamation of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: whence it is also to be understood that those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit under eternal damnation, or are baptized without the profession of the creed, have lied to themselves in the very creed and font, before every man renouncing the devil confesses: I believe also in the Holy Spirit. I believe, I say, also in the Holy Spirit. Let us recognize the privilege of the Word Himself. Anyone of men can believe Him. But to believe in Him, know that you alone owe this to His majesty. But even this itself is one thing, to believe God, and another to believe in God. That God exists, even the devil is said to believe according to the Apostle: For even the demons believe and tremble. But to believe in God is not proven except in one who has piously hoped in Him.

To believe in God, therefore, is to seek Him faithfully; it is to pass wholly into Him with all one's love. To believe in Him, then, is to say: I confess Him, I worship Him, I adore Him, I hand myself over and pour myself out entirely into His right and dominion. In the reverence of this profession are contained all the services due to the divine name.

BOOK ONE.

CHAPTER ONE.

That it is not "in the Church" as it is "in the Holy Spirit"; but that, with the preposition removed, we ought to believe the Catholic Church.

But you object and say that God cannot immediately be shown in this phrase in which we say: I believe also in the Holy Spirit, because there follows: I believe in the holy Catholic Church. First, I do not know how Macedonius dares to name the Catholic Church, who, an exile outside the Catholic Church, is shut out from salvation, having been made one of those of whom it is said: The wicked walk around in a circle. You say, therefore: I believe in the holy Catholic Church. By subjoining a tiny thing—that is, one syllable—what great darkness are you trying to spread beneath it? We believe the Church as the mother of regeneration; we do not believe in the Church as in the author of salvation. For when the whole Church confesses this concerning the Holy Spirit, can it also believe in itself?

Since, therefore, one ought specifically to believe in the Trinity alone—and the teaching of the Fathers just mentioned, celebrated throughout the whole world, confirms this—either remove this syllable from the name of the Church, or else prove by manifest profession, teach by the testimonies of the Scriptures, and convince by the divine oracles, with all presumption of your own words set aside, that you believe in the Church. Let us take from the sacred volumes, in every respect, the things that are to be believed, from whose fountain the very sequence of the symbol is derived. He who believes in the Church believes in a man. Man did not come into being from the Church, but the Church began to be from man. Withdraw, then, from this persuasion of blasphemy, so as not to think that you ought to believe in some human creature—since one must not believe even in an angel or an archangel. For these things that follow in the symbol after the name of the Holy Spirit are received at the close of the symbol with the preposition removed, so that we believe the holy Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the flesh, and eternal life. Let us believe in God—that is, let us confess that these things, entrusted by God, stand firm in God. For the ignorance of some has dragged and swept this preposition into what follows, as though from the nearest and adjacent clause, and has imprudently added it out of superfluity. But in none of the canonical books, on which the text of the symbol depends, have we received that we ought to believe in the Church as in the Holy Spirit and the Son.

And therefore, since every creature is alien from this honor, he in whom we are commanded to believe is God. The word of divinity is specifically assigned by the voice of the Lord and Savior, saying thus: Believe in God, and believe in me. And again: He who believes in me does not believe in me, but in him who sent me (John 14 and 12).

CHAPTER II.

That Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit as being God—not begotten, but created.

But since the catholic Church confesses, "he was conceived of the Holy Spirit," the Macedonians must be asked at this point whether they consider the Holy Spirit the creator or the father of the Redeemer. If perhaps they answer "father," since they have already said at the beginning of the creed, "I believe in God the Father almighty," they will confusedly admit that he has two fathers. But if they assert that he is the creator, as the truth holds, they will be compelled, even by necessity, to proclaim with us that he is the God of the universe. And therefore through the prophet Isaiah, as through his own trumpet and from his own temple, he speaks, when he prefigured the two substances in Christ: Drop down dew, you heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down the just one; let the earth be opened and bud forth the Savior: I the Lord have created him (Isaiah 45). For the man assumed from Mary was the operation of the Holy Spirit, not a portion of him; nor was he begotten by him, but created. He was conceived by power, not by substance; by operation, not by participation; by virtue, not by kind.

CHAPTER III.

That the unity [of God] is to be asserted by prophetic testimonies.

The catholic faith venerates a threefold majesty under the confession of one divinity. Receive from the sacred volumes one divinity. Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God is one God (Deut. 6); and, You shall adore the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve; in the psalms, you who work wonders, you alone are God. Likewise: You alone are most high over all the earth. Through Isaiah also: O God of Israel, who sits above the Cherubim, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth (Isa. 45). Likewise: I am the Lord, I am the first and the last (Isa. 41). Likewise: I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I will not give to another (Isa. 42). But that you may know this testimony pertains to Christ, that is, the first and the last, he said of himself in another place: I am the beginning, who also speak to you (John 8). Likewise: Before me there was no God, and after me there shall be none. I am the Lord, and there is no Savior besides me (Isa. 43). Which pertains especially to Christ, the Savior of the human race. Likewise: Thus says the Lord your redeemer, and your maker from the womb. I am the Lord who makes all things, stretching out the heavens, alone establishing the earth, and no one with me (Isa. 44): which pertains to Jesus, and properly regards him as maker and redeemer. Of whom the evangelist records: All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing. Likewise: There is no God beyond me, and there is no Savior besides me (Isa. 45).

Likewise: I am the first and the last, my hand founded the earth, and my right hand measured out the heavens (Isa. XLVIII). As Jesus Christ elsewhere plainly asserts of himself, saying: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (Rev. XXI). In these testimonies the Holy Spirit is also contained, in which the unity of the whole substance is so to be confessed that in them the distinct property of the persons and the undivided plurality are also to be believed to be present.

CHAPTER IV.

Concerning the Trinity, and that even the liberal disciplines have passed over [the truth] concerning the three Persons.

Since, therefore, we have shown the one divinity of the Word, let us now teach three in one Divinity: three names, not three kingdoms; three appellations, but not three powers; three hypostases or subsistences, but not three substances. It is manifest that even secular wisdom understood, and the whole multitude of secular [writers], that the reason of all things is enclosed within three persons. What are these three? Namely: I, Thou, He. Therefore, as we have said, that there are only three persons in things, even the liberal studies, having borrowed instruction from the spiritual disciplines, perceived, and it appeared evidently to them that a second person does not satisfy perfection, nor can the third be passed beyond, because a duality is half-full, tending toward the third number, and fullness argues [this]; but a quaternity it rejects, perfection being consummated in three.

Since these things have therefore been passed over with light mention, let us assert more firmly by sacred testimonies that the Trinity subsists in unity without change. But you say: Why do you bring me words of unity and Trinity, which you do not find in the canonical reading? It is no wonder if one who does not deserve to enter the inner sanctuaries of the saints shudders at and shrinks from even the testimony of truth. For what is so close at hand, so natural, so proper as that from one, unity, and from three, Trinity, should first be named by catholic definitions? Words that depend on what precedes are not to be examined by themselves, nor indeed is it consistent that those things be judged foreign which are born from one and three, that is, from the property of a manifest beginning. Notice that each of these terms is not presumptuous but derivative. These words antiquity found from the time of the primitive Church, authority brought forth, and long age confirmed.

CHAPTER V.

While the countenance of the Father is declared, the Son is called equal to the Father. Receive the Trinity from the sacred volumes. In the beginning God made heaven and earth, and the Spirit of God was borne over the waters (Gen. 1). The Father is the author, the equal principle, the Holy Spirit poured over the waters. So then he was borne over the waters by the eminence of his dominion; even then, I believe, prefiguring the gifts of baptism. In the making of man also, the threefold repetition of deity shows that the work is not of one person but of three. For thus we read: And God said: Let us make man in our image and likeness. Notice the sentence: simple in its proposition, multiple in its response. And God said, let us make man. What else is this but that the substance of unity speaks and the power of the Trinity works? Observe how the name of God is uttered three times in the creation of man. For thus we have it in Genesis: And God said, let us make man. And again: God created man. And a third time: God blessed him. God said, God made, God blessed. Because of the three persons, the one divinity is repeated three times. In this place understand clearly also the mystery of the Trinity. Behold, the image of God and the likeness is given to each man by three, and yet is recognized to be one. God said, let us make.

Attend carefully: when He says "one" and does not act as one, and again when He mingles the plural with the singular, saying not "to our images and likenesses" nor indeed "to my image and likeness," He commends unity by the singular and the Trinity by the plural. Therefore, in that He says, "Let us make man to our image," the number of persons is set forth; in that He says singularly "to image and likeness," the undivided Godhead is gathered into one substance. When God appeared to Abraham at the door of the tabernacle (Gen. 18), and three wondrously presented themselves to his eyes, he, conscious of the majesty, adored one in three. In the psalm also the unity is plainly designated by its persons: "Cast me not away," he says, "from thy face, and take not thy holy Spirit from me" (Ps. 50). The Son is understood as the image of the Father, and likewise as the face of the Father. And therefore we read: "Philip, who sees me sees also the Father" (John 14). And again: "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, and whither shall I flee from thy face?" Observe in the faith of the perfect confession the mystery of the Trinity. The prophet speaks to the Father, he declares the Son of the Father to be the face of the Father, and he likewise declares the Holy Spirit poured out through all things. Concerning the Son the Lord also speaks to Moses: "My face shall go before thee" (Exod. 33). Which name, that is "face," pertains both to the substance of unity and to the eternity of majesty.

But as for their thinking Him lesser because He was born: what is it for God to be born of God, except to have existed naturally from God? But you say: If He is from Him, He is younger. Behold, the arm is from the body, and the face is born from its own body, and yet it is established that the face is not lesser than its head, nor the arm later than its body. If, then, any head was ever more ancient, then presume to assert that the Father is more ancient than His image, which consists in the perfect likeness and equality of Christ. Thus, therefore, the Son cannot be distinguished from the Father either in power or in time, just as the face cannot be separated from the head, nor can it be found younger than its head.

CHAPTER VI.

That the Spirit of the Father is the Holy Spirit Himself.

But you say: Show me that the Holy Spirit subsists in His own essence. Wherever or however often I read either "the Spirit of the Father," or "my Spirit," or "the Spirit of God," I see, you say, that this must be referred not to the person of the Holy Spirit, but to the Father. First, they heap up blasphemy upon the impiety of their own ungodliness, when they say that one or the other must be believed: either that the Holy Spirit of God is a creature, or certainly that He is the Father Himself. Deservedly, he who does not confess the Holy Spirit is carried down with a confused mind even to the insult of the Father. Certainly, if He is a creature, He cannot belong to the substance of the Father. But if you think that He is the Father's power, how do you presume to degrade Him even to the injury of a creature?

But we shall demonstrate by clear testimonies that the Spirit of God is not said to be from the Father, but properly from the Holy Spirit. We read in Isaiah that the Holy Spirit of the Lord descended upon the Lord Jesus—the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety (Isa. 11). Therefore, concerning this spirit of the Lord, which descends upon the Savior by a sacred inpouring, the Son says through Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me (Isa. 61). And the evangelist Matthew: Behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove (Matt. 3). But that this spirit of God, which the Savior received in baptism, is manifestly the Holy Spirit, the evangelist Luke clearly taught, saying: Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan (Luke 3). We read in the prophet Joel: In those days I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2). What he says of his spirit, it is manifest was said of the Holy Spirit, because when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles on the sacred solemnity of Pentecost, the apostle Peter then cited that testimony from the prophet. That this Spirit of the Father is itself the Holy Spirit, the evangelists taught with different wording but concordant truth. For whereas Matthew said: For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your Father who speaks in you (Matt.

The layman clearly showed that this Spirit of the Father is the Holy Spirit, saying: What has been given to you, that speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. And Luke likewise demonstrated that this Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit, saying: Do not be anxious how or what you should say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that hour what you ought to say. According to these things, therefore, as often as you read either the Spirit of the Father or the Spirit of God, you must confess, laying aside error, that it is to be referred specifically to the Holy Spirit. Likewise also Isaiah had proclaimed the Holy Spirit as one in the glory of the Trinity when he says: I saw the Lord sitting upon a lofty throne, and the seraphim stood, and they cried one to another: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts. And in what follows he says: And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Go and say to this people: Hearing you shall hear, and you shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and you shall not see. Who this Lord of hosts was, who was seen by the prophet through an assumed form or spoke in the prophet, the apostle Paul shows in the Acts of the Apostles, saying: The Holy Spirit spoke well through the prophet Isaiah to our fathers: Hearing you shall hear, and you shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and you shall not see.

Let us believe at least Paul, that most renowned herald of the truth, that the Holy Spirit was that God of hosts whom Isaiah saw and who spoke through Isaiah. But since by the threefold repetition it cries out Holy, holy, holy, let us see whether this honor pertains to the Trinity. When Isaiah says, I saw the Lord of hosts, he is acknowledged to be proclaiming the Father to the Jews. John the Evangelist is shown plainly to assert the Son, saying thus: Therefore they could not believe in Jesus, because Isaiah said: He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart. These things Isaiah said when he saw the glory of the Son and spoke of him. But what the same Isaiah says, And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Go and say to this people: Seeing you shall see, and you shall not see—this Lord the apostle Paul, as we have said, confirms to be the Holy Spirit. You see, therefore, that Holy, holy, holy—this utterance celebrates the whole Trinity? And just as in these three words there is no dissimilarity, no difference, so in the truth of the Trinity there can be no disagreement.

CHAPTER VII.

On the finger of God.

But you say: From this the Holy Spirit is recognized to be lesser, because he is called the finger of God. It is not so. But when you hear it said of the Holy Spirit, If I by the Spirit of God, or by the finger of God, cast out demons, you should know that not a diminution of grace, but the unity of substance is demonstrated; nor a discrepancy of honor, but a concord of work. What then? Because the Holy Spirit is sometimes called the finger, therefore is he sometimes believed to be lesser than the Son and the Father? Flee the error of this persuasion; see that in this designation of the finger, he sometimes comprehends both the Father and the Son. We remember that it was not said of one finger, when we read: For I see your heavens, the works of your fingers. But you say that in the fingers only this is signified of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, under a certain duality. Do not attempt to assert this of two persons; in another place Isaiah speaks of the number of fingers, saying of the Trinity: Who weighed the mass of the earth with three fingers (Isa. 40)? What is more evident concerning the unity of the Trinity, what more clear? Did he not, in three fingers, balance the equality of one power, as it were on a certain scale of mystery? Therefore, as has been said, since you are now instructed concerning the fellowship of work, do not doubt concerning the parity of power. By saying therefore, Who weighed the mass of the earth with three fingers: here they wish to speak specifically of the cooperation of power, and of the unity of substance, which is approved to be one and the same in three fingers.

But nevertheless, observe in Isaiah the proper person of the Holy Spirit, under the distinction of the Trinity. For where the Son asserted of himself, saying, I am the first and I am the last, he consequently added: And now the Lord has sent me, and his Spirit (Isa. 48). Therefore the Lord Father is one in person, and the Spirit of God the Father is another. And so, while the Son is read to be sent by the Father and the Holy Spirit, under the name of three persons the Holy Spirit is evidently shown to subsist from himself, just as in another place the same prophet distinguishes the proper essence of the Trinity. Behold my servant, I will uphold him, my elect, my soul has been well pleased in him, I have given my Spirit upon him (Isa. 42). The Father calls his beloved servant, upon whom he has given his Spirit, of whom Jesus Christ testifies with his own voice: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me (Luke 4). And so that this may also be made manifest to the nations, he says: Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt., last chapter). Where, under three persons, he asserts one work and one name, an undivided majesty. We have, as has been said, according to Luke: And when Jesus was baptized, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove, and a voice was made from heaven: You are my beloved Son, in you I have been well pleased (Luke 3). Therefore the Son is declared in the body, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, the Father in the voice.

But at this point the appearance of the dove must be understood as passing through, not the substance remaining.

CHAPTER VIII.

That it is no detriment to the divinity of the Holy Spirit that he is seen to be neither begotten nor unbegotten.

But amid these matters, since we demonstrate the proper person of the Holy Spirit, and confess the Father unbegotten, and acknowledge the Son as only-begotten, you ask me whether the Holy Spirit is unbegotten or begotten, or what else he must be confessed to be. The holy Scriptures speak of the power and divinity of the Holy Spirit, but whether he ought to be called begotten or unbegotten, they do not speak. See what shadows of unbelief he makes for himself. You do not wish to know what he willed not to be unknown; and you wish to know what he did not command to be inquired into. He did not say "begotten," lest you should believe him the Son; he did not say "unbegotten," lest you should think him the Father; but for the distinction of essence, he testified that he proceeds from the Father, as we read: The Paraclete, who proceeds from the Father. Since these things are so, even thus acknowledge that the Holy Spirit has his own proper person. That there is a third besides the two, the diversity of the name proves; that the one proceeding from God is not third in order or degree, the unity of majesty shows. For he who proceeds from the inner depths of God is proved to be not a creature of God, but the substance of God. Do not scrutinize how God is, whom it is manifest to be God. Here the reason lies hidden, the truth does not lie hidden. Why do you ask how he is the companion and equal of the King, whom it is established belongs to the King in honor and kind?

Inquiry about the name is superfluous, where there is no doubt concerning the sublimity. Therefore the Holy Spirit proceeds from both, and so he says: But whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ, this one is not his. And in another place: He breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit. You ask whether he is unbegotten or begotten. The sacred utterances have sung nothing of this; it is a sacrilege to break forth upon the divine silences. What God did not believe should be indicated in his Scriptures, he did not wish you to indicate or to know by superfluous curiosity. He indicated that this ought to come to your conscience which pertains to your salvation. What you ought to believe concerning the Holy Spirit, let us consult the sacred utterances. For would you dare to say that the Son is begotten—an unjust thing—unless you had learned it from the testimony of the heavenly Scriptures? Or would you presume to assert that Christ the Lord was either born of the Virgin, or begotten of the co-equal and co-eternal Father, unless you had taken it from reading, unless you had questioned the divine voices concerning God? And therefore, how you ought to consent concerning the Holy Spirit, you must return to the apostles and the Gospels, with whom and in whom you do not doubt that God has spoken. Therefore, to return to your superfluous proposition, is it held in this grace or substance of the Holy Spirit whether he is proved to be unbegotten or begotten? For it detracts nothing from the Son that he is not read to be unbegotten, nor from the Father that he is not held to be begotten.

In discourses of this kind, the point at issue is the propriety of the name, not any diversity of power or majesty. Begotten and unbegotten are a difference of person, not of nature. When, therefore, you have said or heard things about the begotten and the unbegotten that are useless and unnecessary and suited only to slander, will you be content to stand on this line? Surely you will still ask whether he is God. When you have learned from what is read that he is true God, you will no longer have anything to ask, because once you have begun to know things strong and complete, you will not need to inquire into things empty and vain. Where, then, the reckoning of usefulness and the fullness of truth are understood to be, there let your saving intention be directed.

CHAPTER IX.

That the Holy Spirit is the perfecter of charisms and the bestower.

That the Holy Spirit is the bestower of heavenly charisms and the dispenser of sanctifications is attested by the very meaning of the name. His magnificence is manifest even in the Old Testament. For there his grace was granted only to certain persons, that is, to the patriarchs alike and the prophets, and to the saints and the chosen, so that through that very perfection of gifts you may understand the dignity of the giver. But as is most clearly grasped in the Holy Scriptures, the Father himself does some things through himself, some things specially through the Son, some things through the Holy Spirit, though he works under the privilege of power in common. That we exist seems properly to be referred to the Father, in whom, as the Apostle says, we live and move and are.

But that we are capable of reason and wisdom and justice is specially attributed to him who is reason and wisdom and justice, that is, to the Son. But that we are called and regenerated, and being regenerated are renewed, and being renewed are sanctified, is evidently ascribed by the divine utterances to the person of the Holy Spirit. But the sacred pages say this under the distinction of the undivided Trinity, so that it may appear to anyone that there is a diversity of work in each, yet there remains in the three a unity of will. Therefore both gentiles and catechumens partake of the dispensation of the Father and the Son, but of the sanctification and infusion of the Holy Spirit they do not, unless they have already attained that most blessed state, been purified and made spiritual, and even apostolic, and prepared with their whole spirit for martyrdom. And among these, will he still be judged by the impious to be a creature, who among the undivided Trinity in the ordering of human salvation obtains the more magnificent and more perfect gifts? But perhaps you say: The Holy Spirit is greater, whose works are greater and nobler. It is not so. For this is the custom of the Trinity, that to whatever person it entrusts the office of administering a matter, to that person it ascribes the effect of the completed work; and even if the work is perhaps different, the purpose is common; and if there is a special deed in each, the general counsel remains in the three; and therefore, if they have a distinct business in operation, they nevertheless hold one consent in ordering.

After the ascension of the Lord, to heap up and fulfill his benefits, the Holy Spirit is described as having descended, of whom the Savior himself speaks through the Gospel of John: That Spirit of truth whom the Father will send in my name (John 14). The Father, he says, will send in my name—evidently concerning the Trinity. Of what creature have we ever read or heard it said that it came into this world in the name of God? Therefore this one, of whom Christ the Lord God says, Unless I go, the Paraclete will not come to you (John 16), is without doubt God, who is sent in the place of God to confirm the gifts of God. In these two statements, with the distinction of the Trinity, the person of the Holy Spirit also is absolutely declared. Not undeservedly, therefore, is this also referred to the equality of the Godhead, that just as the Son, so also the Holy Spirit is called Paraclete in the Scriptures. And from where could we prove this? Certainly from the authority of the apostle John, when he says: If anyone of us has sinned, we have a Paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2). Paraclete, that is, advocate, which regards the person of the Son, or also comforter, which pertains to the Holy Spirit—one utterance of the Greek word signifies both. In the Gospel of John we have: And I, he says, will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete (John 14).

Another Paraclete, that is, of like power, of the Father's glory, of the same nature. And another Paraclete. If you think the Holy Spirit is one of created things, it is unworthy that a creature descending should confirm by the same benefits which the Creator conferred, and that the power of the Maker should be, as it were, ineffective, while the effect of so great a work is reserved for a creature, however more excellent. You therefore insult the Holy Spirit as a creature with reproach, to whom the Son of God equated himself by divine testimony and his own utterance. And another Paraclete: here recognize a double meaning and a distinction of person. Therefore Christ seems to have equated himself with the Holy Spirit under the name of Paraclete, who is indeed the material and formation of God's work, because Jesus himself is proved to have been created from Mary, on account of which the unbelieving utterance is so weak an argument. For if you think Christ was likened to the Paraclete according to the man, not even this is fitting to his character. For being made a little lower than the angels, and made one of us, he could not well be compared to the first and heavenly creature, more excellent, as you assert. But if Christ spoke this according to the form of God, it is certain that the effect ought not to have been attributed to the Maker.

And if man equates himself to this more excellent creature, it is the pride of a lesser being; if to God, it is an injury to a greater. Since, therefore, in the condition of a creature this comparison is not acknowledged to stand, it remains that both are believed to be God, and that an equality of divinity is seen to be compared mutually. For when the Savior speaks through John: And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, whom this world cannot receive, he who can be given to the whole world is manifestly the God of the world. Recognize here also the threefold power. The Father is he who is indicated as to be asked, the Son who is understood as about to ask, the Holy Spirit who is promised as to be sent by the Father. Observe the person of the Holy Spirit, not so much to be associated with created things, as you assert, but in all things to be joined to the Trinity in works and equated in powers.

CHAPTER X.

The assertion of the Trinity is repeated from the Acts of the Apostles, where also Christ is asserted to have been sent to give repentance against the Novatians.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, says: "Therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you see and hear." In the right hand the Son is designated, in God the Father, in the proper name of himself the Holy Spirit, and we read in what follows. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said: "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, in this name this man stands before you whole." Observe here also the distinction of the Trinity expressed: Peter bearing the Holy Spirit in himself, he speaks of the Son dying in the flesh, and of the Father raising him, and nonetheless the apostolic word is repeated: "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with confidence." Notice also in this place that the Holy Spirit is contained in the Trinity. In the prayer the Father is entreated, in the word of God the Son is recognized, in the constancy of the apostles the Spirit of fire works. "They were all filled," he says, "with the Holy Spirit." It is [the mark] of manifest majesty to be able to pour in many things at once by the subtlety of incorporeal divinity, and to remain whole without diminishment. Likewise, when the apostles had said concerning Jesus: "This God exalted as prince and savior by his right hand, to give repentance to Israel for the remission of sins. We," they say, "are witnesses of these things, and the Holy Spirit whom God has given to all who obey him.

Understand here, in the order of the Trinity, that the Son is sent by the Father not only to preach but to give repentance, and that the Holy Spirit is poured into those who obey, to reward their obedience. Stephen, at the moment of his passion, is filled with the Holy Spirit, and with the gates of justice opened, the Son is revealed at the right hand of the Father, as he himself, filled with the Holy Spirit, declares: "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." See how, under the spectacle of the Trinity, he was proclaiming the gifts of his passion. Peter addresses the centurion Cornelius, saying: "Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit." God anointed—that is, power filled him, blessing poured into him, divinity penetrated him. How God anointed him with the Holy Spirit. These three clearly demonstrate their own properties: the gift, the giver, and the recipient. The anointing, the anointed, and the ointment, as the divine word says in another place: "God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness." In the man assumed, God is anointed, and God anoints, and at the descent of the heavenly dove the power of the Father is acknowledged. It is not right that the Holy Spirit here—by whom the Son of Man, now full as the Son of God, is filled—should be believed to be anything other than God. For if he were a creature, how could he penetrate bodily nature, he who penetrates all things? For the Trinity is capable of itself, as "I am in the Father and the Father in me." And again: "The Spirit searches even the deep things of God." Likewise, the Spirit who proceeds from the Father.

XV). Unless this Spirit were with him from the Father, and dwelt naturally infused in the Father's eternity, he could not proceed from the Father. But you ask whether the Spirit always proceeds from the Father: he is always with him, always from him; like heat from fire, so he is brought forth without intermission, so as to know how to go forth and not to know how to be separated. For if the procession of the Holy Spirit were not eternal, his substance would seem to be local; if the one did not penetrate the other without mixture of itself, by the incorporeal union of its own brightness, the divinity would be confused. For mixture removes the property of a triple essence, but mutual infusion shows a distinct essence, which can be seen as intermediate between substance and persons. It belongs to substance that it subsists; it belongs to persons that each one subsists properly to itself. Paul uses another [word] for his disciples, saying: I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as bishops, to rule the Church of God, which he acquired with his own blood. How clearly is the whole Trinity designated by its persons! He declares the counsel of God the Father; he confirms that the bishops were ordained by the Holy Spirit; he also shows God to be Christ, by whose blood the Church was acquired. To the Romans also the Trinity is set forth under the propriety of names.

But if his Spirit, who raised Jesus, dwells in you, he who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, because of his Spirit dwelling in you (Rom. 8). The Father raises, the Son is raised, and because of the indwelling Spirit life is promised to the mortal bodies that are to be raised. And in what follows: You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. When he says the Spirit of God, and in the following clause the Spirit of Christ, notice that here he designates the person of Christ under the name of God. Or if here he signifies the Father, whose Spirit it is, under the designation of God, behold, here the Holy Spirit is declared by the unity of substance to be the Spirit of both the Father and the Son, and rightly he is recognized to proceed from both, and he is seen to have a distinct person in the bond of the Trinity, and he who does not have the Holy Spirit is shown to have neither Christ. Therefore the Holy Spirit is God; when he is denied, Christ is also denied, who said: No one comes to the Father except through me. He who is empty of the Holy Spirit is not Christ's, and he loses the way by which one comes to the Father.

CHAPTER XI.

That it is proper to God to sanctify a creature.

From the First Epistle to the Corinthians. And such indeed you were, but you have been washed, but you have been justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6). Behold, here too, under "our God," that is, under the mention of the Father, the Holy Spirit sanctifies the faithful of the Corinthians, with Christ cooperating. No creature can sanctify another creature at all. The bestowal of sanctification is the munificence of the Majesty alone. In this passage, "in the name of Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God," recognize three persons. From the Second Epistle to the Corinthians: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be always with you all (2 Cor. 13). The grace of Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit—he has evidently expressed three persons. Likewise in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians: But he who confirms us with you in Christ, and he who has anointed us, is God, and he who has sealed us, and given us the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts (2 Cor. 1). Hence in these works he confirms the unity of the undivided Trinity, and seals us properly through Christ, and, about to give himself, he already gives the Holy Spirit as a pledge in the present. In earthly transactions, the amount of the earnest is a certain portion of that contract for which it is given as security, but the nature of a pledge exceeds the value of the thing for which it is set down. Here, however, since a pledge of his own Majesty cannot be surpassed, it must necessarily be equal.

For they cannot pass over to what is perfect. On his own behalf, then, the Father bestows the pledge of the Holy Spirit. Nothing, therefore, in the Holy Spirit is ever thought to be half-full over against full, or full, because he is compared to fullness. For it is not right that he who is given in place of God, as a pledge, should be believed to be anything other than God. Likewise, to Titus: He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ (Titus 3). Behold, here too, under the Trinity, the Father manifestly poured out the abundance of the Holy Spirit through the Son. And what must especially be noted, he ascribes the power of regeneration and renewal to the Holy Spirit himself. Peter also, in his Epistle, sets forth the Trinity as invincible for the persons, saying: According to the foreknowledge of God the Father and the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, may grace and peace be multiplied to you (1 Peter 1). In the foreknowledge, the Father; in the sanctification, the Spirit; in the sprinkling of the blood, Christ is shown.

CHAPTER XII.

That the Holy Spirit is not local.

Let us demonstrate that the Holy Spirit is God from his own powers and works. Every creature, just as it is subject to the beginnings of times, so is known to be local, circumscribed by fixed spaces and boundaries. The Holy Spirit is enclosed by no limits, as a created thing is; being God, he must be regarded as such by the very freedom of his diffused majesty. The voice of the Lord Savior to the apostles is: The Father, he says, will give you the Spirit of truth, who will be with you forever. If he is local, and was remaining forever in them, he could certainly not be elsewhere. Let us see whether his nature is to be determined by local limits. The Lord says to the apostles: You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1). After whose ascension the Holy Spirit came upon them, and there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them. Let us see why the blessings of diverse tongues are first granted, namely that they might be made fit for the instruction of the faithful peoples.

But the fact that he is recorded to have sat upon individuals is the reason it is understood that he was not divided among many, but remained whole in each; yet just as is the custom with Geri's fires—for, as we know, kindled fire has this nature, that to as many as have looked upon it, to as many as have looked upon a hair of its purple splendor, it imparts the use of its light, to so many it grants the service of its gift, and nonetheless remains in its own integrity—so the power of the Holy Spirit, however much it flows forth, however much the grace of divine generosity overflows into very many, just as it is proved to receive no measure, so it has felt no expense. Observe God from the dignity of his works. The apostles, full of the Holy Spirit, about to dispense the treasures of salvation throughout the whole world, carry this heavenly gift within themselves and transfer it to others by the laying on of hands. To those who receive, it is given without loss to the giver. To believers the whole is handed over, and the whole is possessed by those who hand it over; by its infusion the whole world is filled, without diminution it is enlarged, without division it is dispersed. Especially in that most sacred teaching of regeneration, from East to West, from the rising of the sun even to its setting, from the north and the sea, everywhere the same Spirit, one and full, works, is present through all things, is believed by invocation, is perceived by blessing; countless multitudes are washed in one baptism and, as the Apostle said, are made to drink of one Spirit, and are reborn into the one bosom of adoption.

And therefore God said: In those days I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh. Note that he said, "I will pour out of my Spirit," and did not say, "I will pour out my Spirit," that is, only as much of him as the world can receive by dispensation. You see that he proceeds from the Father, and yet is not separated from the Father; he is sent forth, and not lost; he is poured out, and is retained; and in that he is read to be poured out, the greatness of his fullness is declared. The book of Genesis testifies at the beginning of the sacred volume: But the Spirit of the Lord was borne over the waters—was borne, it says, over the waters (Gen. 1); that very phrase seems to assign both the abundance of one who fills all things and the eminence of one who rules. This magnificence of his, circumscribed by no spaces of places, he also celebrates with equal testimony, saying: Whither shall I go from thy spirit (Ps. 138), that is, where shall I hide myself from his sight, whom I do not doubt is present through all things, that is, within and without, whose eye, penetrating the abysses, I dread within the secrets of my own heart, and to whose presence I recognize that all things which he has created are subject? Concerning whom, because he is a consuming fire, understand clearly what is said, and there is none who can hide himself from his heat (Ps. 18). His ineffable greatness enters the depths of the lower regions, spreads through the floods, extends over the lands, reaches the heights of the heavens, fills them, and exceeds them.

He is said to be sent by the Father and the Son, to proceed from their substance, and is recognized as performing one work with them; and for this reason the Son says of him: The Paraclete who proceeds from the Father (John 15). He did not say, "who was created by the Father," but "proceeds from the Father," that is, from the fellowship of the Father's power and from the property of his nature. But from this very statement, when he is said to proceed from the Father, it is shown that he has no beginning with the Father. What then is the meaning of the fact that the Son is said to be born of God the Father, and the Holy Spirit is signified to proceed? If you ask what difference there is between the one who is born and the one who proceeds, this is evidently the difference: the former is born from one, the latter proceeds from both. Therefore, because the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, he shows three privileges of deity in himself, namely that he subsists in his own person, that he endures without any span of time, and that he is proved to exist entirely from the substance of the Father. Therefore, when he is commemorated as proceeding, by the very property of the word it is known that he is circumscribed by no laws of time, but lacks beginning and end. And because we read: I am who I am, and, He who is sent me (Exodus 3). This he similarly indicates and proceeds. For to be and to proceed are the expression of one eternity. Therefore that procession itself, touching neither first nor last, is understood to be subject to no beginning or end.

We do not, therefore, believe him to be local from himself, because we have perceived from reading that he is sent by the Father; for we read also of the Father and the Son that they descend and come as if by a certain motion. Let us see where. I (he says) and the Father will come, and we will make our dwelling with him (John XIV). And again, when the giants strove to raise a tower into heaven, the person of the Father speaks: Come and let us confound their tongues (Gen. XI). Here, then, through the sounds of our words, the accomplishing of things is shown to our senses. But the divine power does not suffer local motion, which neither arrives by an advancing course nor departs by a slipping back. When it exceeds all things, where does it withdraw to? We have learned concerning the Holy Spirit from reading: But the Church had peace throughout all Judea, walking in the fear of the Lord, and was filled with the consolation of the Holy Spirit (Acts IX). And how does anyone presume to assert that he is a local creature, when he is proved to fill the Church with an infinite multitude, so that it is manifest that what the Apostle says pertains also to him: The Father of mercies and the God of all consolation (1 Cor. I)? We have in the psalm: The rush of the river gladdens the city of God (Ps. XLV). What is this rush of the river, if not surely that one of whom the Lord says through John: Whoever believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from his belly? This Jesus the Lord said concerning the Spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive (John I). See the magnificence of his majesty.

Thus it is given on earth to the Church of God, yet nonetheless it gladdens in heaven the city of God—that is, the citizens of the heavenly kingdoms, the peoples of the supernal militia, the principalities, powers, and dominions—watering them with ineffable joys in the knowledge of eternal blessedness, and inebriating them more abundantly with the richness of gladness, and arousing the harmony of heaven in exultation by the torrent of its sanctification. If you think these great things are given through some creature, you leave nothing proper to the divine Power. If, I say, you think these things come through some creature, you are doing injury to the angels and archangels, since you judge that such great and such things are bestowed through the largess of a fellow servant.

BOOK TWO.

CHAPTER ONE.

That no rational creature can be infused into a creature of the same kind.

We read concerning the abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit: But Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan. Who, then, except one who was of that same fullness, could fill one who fills all things? The divine word reports concerning the apostles: And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And they spoke the word of God with confidence. And a little later: For it is forbidden that he be poured into whole nations, and he is recognized to remain inexhaustible and full in himself. If the Spirit is created, of which angel or archangel has it ever been read that, having been received within, he poured himself into anyone's soul?

Tell me, if you have ever read of any power and virtue among created things that at once fills and possesses many things, and—what is more—remains undiminished and undivided. It is impossible for a spiritual and rational creature ever to penetrate a nature akin to itself. And so a material thing cannot penetrate a material substance. God alone, in whom the Holy Spirit also is understood—simple, subtle, pure—glides by the power of His incorporeal divinity into a created being, whether angelic or human; He alone is the penetrator of His own work, and enters the hidden places of the human heart. But any heavenly creature whatsoever cannot so pour itself into or fill a man as to be able to know the hidden thoughts of his mind. And therefore we read of God alone: "You alone know the hearts of men" (Prov. 6). And again: "She herself knows how to discern hidden things." And if this is proper to divinity, how much more is it a mark of majesty to search the depths of the most high God in the person of the Holy Spirit! This privilege is owed to the Author alone—to be able to enter the secret conscience. But a soul can be joined to a soul, or an angel to an angel; it cannot be poured in, because creatures of this kind are capable only of the Holy Spirit, that is, of God alone, since they are vessels of His own, and can be filled by Him alone by whom they were made from nothing, and without whom they are felt to be empty.

Therefore the substance of the soul, being as it were corporeal matter, is utterly unknown to be infused into another rational creature. For when compared with the grossness of the outer man, the soul can be called incorporeal; but when referred to its Author, to whom its own matter is comprehensible and its own making is palpable, it can be enclosed and bound within the body by Him, and handed over to perpetual fire, as we read, that they may go into eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. To this Author, without doubt, belongs the perfecting of a corporeal thing. But perhaps you say: It is manifest that the importunate violence of demons also frequently pours itself into men whom it has received to tempt. It is not so; for they can enter the hiding places of the body, but they cannot approach the inner parts of the soul. It must therefore be known that the deceitful subtlety of wicked spirits disturbs by its assault those places of the members which are sometimes worn out by excessive wine or by the heat of fever. Thus the hostile temptation knows how to creep into the senses of the soul through malice, but by nature it does not know how to flow into the recesses of the soul. And therefore spirits of this kind do not capture human minds and hearts by an infusion of natures, but conceive them by the depravity of wills. It is therefore manifest that they cannot penetrate the substances of souls, whose consciences they cannot know. But if it has ever happened that demons know them, it is from the compatibility of perdition, not from the power of nature.

Therefore only the divine power, which is also in the Holy Spirit, is infused into and poured around and mingled with rational creatures; just as it rested in a unique way, with grace overflowing, in that body of the Lord's man, taken from Mary his mother, as the Son says of himself: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me (Luke 4). If, then, the Holy Spirit were of a created condition, as they say, it was as impossible as it was unworthy of God that any creature should fill the soul or body in which the Son of God, that is, God, was already present, and in which, as the Apostle says, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2). If the Holy Spirit is a creature, how can a corruptible condition possess an incorruptible [nature] and one capable of majesty? If the Holy Spirit is one of the created things made from the common people, how is a creature presumed to be, as it were, made equal with the Creator, that is, with the Son of God, and a servant with the Lord to share one dwelling in the soul of the Savior; and as though in him the presence of the Author were not sufficient for himself, does the servant come to add to the fullness of holiness? It is not so. But the heavenly fellowship is known to be a partner of that temple. Nor is it strange if in that illustrious soul of the blessed body the Son and the Holy Spirit obtain one dwelling place, since it is established that heaven is also common to them.

CHAPTER II.

Whether, according to the opinion of the ignorant, the Holy Spirit, like the Son, was incarnate, because he too came upon Mary. Or whether only the Son was born of the Virgin.

But it is said: If the Holy Spirit dwelt in the body and soul of the redeemed, then the Holy Spirit himself will seem to have undergone incarnation. It is not so. For before the beginnings of creation Mary's body is filled by the Holy Spirit, and among the beginnings of creation the Son of the Virgin is conceived with the Holy Spirit cooperating, but to be possessed in a special way for the person of the Son for nine months, and together with him, when he came forth into the light, he is infused—yet the person of the Holy Spirit does not receive a share in that time within the secret of the virginal womb. Therefore the man whom the Son of God takes up from his very beginnings, the Holy Spirit entered not as one who takes him up but as one who sanctifies him. For the former is born, the latter is infused. Of the Son of the Virgin, the soul or flesh can be said to be the soul or flesh of the Son of God personally and specially; but the soul or flesh can in no way be said to be the Holy Spirit. And therefore, in him in whom the God of glory is said to have been crucified—that is, in the Son of God—the Holy Spirit cannot in any way be said to have suffered. Therefore there is a diversity of works, not a diversity of substances. For just as we cannot say that either the Father descended in the form of a dove, or that the Son spoke in the voice of the Father, when he said: This is my Son (Matt.

you cannot assert that the Holy Spirit was born of the Virgin, or that he dwelt specifically in the flesh of the Redeemer, or that he was crucified in his passion, or that he was returned to a body in the resurrection, or that he was exalted to heavenly places in the ascension. These things necessarily belong to the work and person of the Son, but they do not belong to the Holy Spirit, even though the unity of will is preserved. Among these points Macedonius asserts that the Holy Spirit is a creature. Hence, wherever he begins, let him presume to accomplish nothing by his own words, nor let him go beyond the sacred pages in his disputation, but let him bring forth authority in all things from testimonies, if he can, which may prevail against the faith of the whole world both in number and in power. Without doubt there is need of great allegations and of abundant and very evident proofs, so that anyone may be convinced that he is one of the number of creatures, whom together with the Father and his Son all the kingdoms of the earth celebrate as of the same honor and glory; whom the catholic Church, regenerated in him, knows to be her creator. And rightly does she not hesitate to believe him to be the author whom she perceives to be her restorer.

CHAPTER III.

The objection of Macedonius, by which he impiously asserts that the Holy Spirit is a creature of a more excellent kind.

"A creature," he says, "I call him, but more excellent than all creatures." We have spoken beforehand, so that we may set down our case not on our own persuasions but on catholic oracles. Therefore, since we are treating of God, let the prophet, the apostle, and the evangelist answer. You say that he is a creature more excellent than all creatures. Show in which books you have read words concerning the Holy Spirit. Will you teach that he is not to be found in the old books, nor in the new? Since, therefore, you are unable to bring this forward, while you do not explain your own claims, we confirm ours. While you do not approve him as a creature, even with us silent you show that he is the Creator. And so, since this assertion of yours does not pertain to the catholic sense, since it does not pertain at all to the Christian institution, acknowledge it as the device of the devil, who, when he sees a soul empty of the Holy Spirit, envies that gift of the soul, as though it were due to contrary guests, with the sevenfold wickedness. For he who shuts him out receives the other.

In him was that more excellent creature, who, shining forth in heavenly brightness, knowing his numbers but ignorant of his author, saw that he had these things yet did not know he had received them, and therefore, puffed up, lost the glory that in his blessedness he did not understand, saying thus: I will ascend above the stars of the clouds, I will set my throne above the throne, and I will be like the Most High. He therefore, as I judge, had no one among creatures superior to himself, saw no one between himself and God, in emulation of whom, stirred by the goad of pride, he might rise up; and therefore, seeing no one standing before him in the order of the heavenly host, he presumed to make himself equal to the very Lord of all things. But if he had perceived anyone more excellent than himself, being impatient of a greater, in heavenly joy, he would have attempted rather to compare or prefer himself to him. There are two things in the heavens: he who rules and those who are ruled; between these no third kind existed, which would be lower than the latter and higher than the highest. Perhaps you can say that the more excellent creature is from among the archangels, although they excel the others more by order than by nature. But even the archangels serve the Holy Spirit, one of whom, as a minister, announced his coming to blessed Mary. But you say: Behold, where the prophet Amos evidently assigns the Holy Spirit as a creature, saying thus: Behold, I am he who establishes thunder and creates the spirit (Amos 4).

First, it is the case that sometimes the name "spirit" can by no means be referred to the person of the sanctifying Spirit unless you add either "the Spirit of God," or "the Holy Spirit," or "the spirit breathes where it wills"—that is, unless you add the dignity either of the work or of the proper name. Then, if you look to the order of the reading, he showed that this more excellent creature, as you assert, was by no means despised. For he described it as being after the creature of thunder. Hence it was inconsistent that, according to your understanding, he should place this principal work of God after an irrational creature, or associate it with an element. I will not say of the person of an angel, but of any just man, that this should be believed unworthy. More fittingly, therefore, let us judge this to be near and friendly to reason: that after the thunders we understand the blasts signified by the winds, as in the psalm: "The spirit of the storms, which do his word" (Ps. 148), or that: "Sulphur, the spirit of the storms" (Ps. 10), or: "With a vehement spirit you shall crush the ships of Tharsis" (Ps. 47). In various ways "spirit" is understood, when it is not specifically designated with its own privileges. But, passing over these things, consult the truth of the Hebrew translation, and there you will detect the shameful error of your persuasion. For you will find it written there thus: "For behold, I am forming the mountains, and creating the wind." See with how bare and how empty words, against God, you have believed.

See with what a great argument you have armed yourself against the power of majesty, and after those things you do not fear to cling to so weak a little branch, you who hang over so dreadful an abyss.

CHAPTER IV.

Macedonius, asserting a duality, denies that the Holy Spirit has His own person.

Then you introduce a duality, and you say that the Holy Spirit does not have His own person, nor do you perceive that you have lost the grace of regeneration, you who hasten toward an offense against regeneration, whom divine truth proclaims to be united to itself in common majesty and power. Thus it says: Go, it says, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In the name, it says, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. last). The singularity of the name speaks unity; the diversity of the appellations, the Trinity. In one name, therefore, but in the distinction of persons, not one. What is the prerogative of one name in three, except the undivided concord of deity? Make a step, if you can, where, with God Himself attesting this, you find nothing besides one God. You hear "Three," lest the Sabellian impiety mix up and confound the unity. You hear "One," lest the Arian perversity divide the Trinity. You hear "the Holy Spirit," so that the expressed property of the distinct name may pierce Macedonius through. And so it is not the immutable work of a creature, but of the Creator, that is accomplished, where the abolition and immunity of sins is bestowed.

Nevertheless, in this inseparable embrace of majesty, in the property of person the Father is one, the Son is another, the Holy Spirit is another, but in unity they are not another thing. Indeed, if he were not God, he could not have a proper person alongside the Father and the Son. Finally, when the Word passes into flesh, and God puts on the appearance of a man, and he pitches his tabernacle around him, and wraps his splendor in the darkness of our frailty, and makes darkness his hiding place, the substance of God and of man is indeed twofold, yet there is one person. For what reason? Because while he takes the form of an old man, God is joined to the servant, the humility of the lesser is hidden within the reverence of the greater, and the light of the superior is consumed in being emptied out, and so humanity does not obtain the property of person, with divinity overshadowing or standing forth. Therefore there can be an equality of persons where there is an equality of merits and dignities. And therefore you should know that the Holy Spirit possesses with the Father and the Son the one privilege of majesty, since you see that he obtains the proper right of a person. But if someone objects and says: If in Christ, both God and man, we speak of two substances, why should we not believe in two persons by a similar reasoning? It is not so. For whoever makes two persons in Christ introduces an impiety against eternity, which the nature of things does not at all receive.

Concerning two rational and diverse substances—especially God and man, Creator and creature—a unity cannot be made; but concerning two persons, a unity can be made, as we read that the head and the body, Christ and the Church, hold one person. For they shall be, he says, two in one flesh. And just as among us men the son of the father of a household, in relation to the father, or a servant in relation to his master, has no place of his own person, so in God and man there is indeed a twofold substance, but not a twofold person, because a person can consume a person, but a substance cannot consume a substance. Indeed, a person is a matter of law, a substance a matter of nature. At this point it seems necessary that we assert by testimonies that in Christ the Lord there is equally one person of God and of man, and two substances. Give one person of the Redeemer, God and man. The Apostle says: For if they had known the wisdom of God, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. If you ask how the inviolable could suffer and the incomprehensible be crucified, the unity of person brings it about that what man endured, God is believed to have endured. Likewise, when the evangelist recalls: No one has ascended except he who descended from heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven: how does he here call him the Son of man before the day of his passion or resurrection or ascension, and assert that he descended from heaven and remains in the heavenly places, unless the reasoning of truth resolves this through the unity of person?

Just as in another place the person of the head and the body is joined together, when it is read: I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink. What does the unity of person say? Man is fed and God is refreshed. The foot is set in place and the head testifies that it feels the soothing. Therefore it says: They would never have crucified the Lord of glory. And conversely: No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven. See how, through the unity of person, human things are mingled with divine things and divine things with human things. God is crucified, and man is said both to descend from heaven and to remain in heaven. Since these things are so, let us examine from the sacred volumes the distinction of the twofold substance. Thus blessed Moses says: You shall eat the head with the feet, and you shall devour its entrails. In the feet let us believe humanity, and in the head majesty. Thus it comes about that, while by searching faith we come to know these things that lie hidden within the letter, we take its entrails, that is, the hidden things of the mysteries. For the zeal of searching is understood as the eagerness of devouring. Just as also in another place the same one, revealing the setting forth of the twofold substance in the sacraments, makes known, saying: Foxes have dens, and the birds of the air nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

This is the seat that the deceitful and dark or airy powers have placed for themselves in human hearts by a deep condemnation, but me in the hearts of the faithful who see the man in the flesh and do not believe that God lies hidden within the man; for he designates as pits and nests not transient and momentary dwelling places, but those founded on lasting and secure possession, which multiply the serpentine nourishment of vices. For the Apostle clearly added two substances, with the obscurity of the sacrament removed, saying thus: Our fathers were from the clouds, Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. But you say: the Apostle confesses only two persons in the volume of his works, as he speaks to the Corinthians: Paul, called an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. And to the Galatians: Paul an apostle, not from men nor through a man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. And again, one God the Father, from whom are all things and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and we through him. According to these, you say, no mention is made of the Holy Spirit. To speak briefly, you have forgotten that the Apostle, full of the Holy Spirit, while the Spirit himself was breathing these things into the apostles, was preaching about the Father and the Son. Therefore, while he was speaking about the operation of the Father and the Son, he was not absent who was dictating what was to be spoken, according to that saying: No one says Lord Jesus, except in the Holy Spirit.

Whoever, therefore, is going to believe or confess or preach Christ, you see that he must first have the Holy Spirit in himself. Do not, then, honor your faith in such a way that at times mention is made of the Father and the Son without remembrance of the Holy Spirit. For often, with the name of the Father suppressed, the operation of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is preached. Saint Ananias says to Paul: Saul, brother, the Lord Jesus has sent me, who appeared to you on the way by which you were coming, so that you may see and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Here plainly there is a conjunction of two persons. Behold, Paul is convicted by Christ, blinded, and is filled, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, and no mention of the Father is inserted here. Likewise, when Paul asked certain of the disciples, In what were you baptized?—men who, it was established, had been baptized after the Lord's ascension with John's baptism, after the Baptism of the Trinity had been preached, since even that mystery by which John was accustomed to baptize, that is, into him who was to come, was shown to have been omitted in their baptism, when the apostle Paul said: John indeed baptized, but into him who was to come (Acts XIX)—that is to say: you were not baptized in this way. When Paul asked these men: If you received the Holy Spirit when you believed—men who certainly had been duly baptized after the Savior's baptism through the imposition of hands—they confess. But they answered: We have not even heard whether there is a spirit. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. Observe that when they are baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, afterward they receive the Holy Spirit, and the prophetic power from the invocation of the Paraclete. Truly he is God who after the gift of God is not read [as such], but only, as must be believed, when the Holy Spirit had come upon them with the Son, then they spoke in tongues and prophesied. See how great is the power of the Holy Spirit. In baptism the forgiveness of sins is granted, in the coming of the Holy Spirit the gifts of virtues are conferred, and by those confirmed the miracles of signs are celebrated. For those alien to the truth are accustomed to calumniate even syllables. For since we know that it was said absolutely of the Trinity, that from him and through him and in him are all things (Rom. 8), they assert that "from him" is more than "through him," and likewise that this preposition, that is "through," is of greater prerogative than "in him." But if they think that "in him" was said of the Holy Spirit with a diminution of power, let them hear the magnificence of this preposition, and let them accept that even according to their own assertion it must be understood of the Holy Spirit. In him, it says, we live and move and are (Acts 17). And rightly in him we live, move, and are, in whom we have been restored and regenerated. But we also acknowledge that "through him" must be referred to the Holy Spirit, as you have it.

To one indeed through the Spirit is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge (1 Cor. 12). Likewise to the Hebrews: Who through the Holy Spirit offered himself unblemished to God; and again: The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the same Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For if we understand this also of the Father, we find it said similarly both of him and of the Holy Spirit. As we have it in the Gospel of John: What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3). And in the conclusion of the chapter: So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Therefore the Holy Spirit is not slighted when, with his will left unmentioned, the works of the Father and the Son are commemorated, just as the Father and the Son are not denied when the work and power of the Holy Spirit are specifically mentioned, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now (Acts 1). As also in the Gospel it is contained concerning the distinct person of the Holy Spirit: Unless one is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3). Surely in this place the Father and the Son, because they are not named, will not be believed to have been absent from so great and so divine a gift? It is not so. For without doubt, while they are joined with the Holy Spirit, with whom they share one substance, in the mysteries and benefits, even if not by mention, yet they are present by the unity of devotion and work.

CHAPTER V.

The objection that the saying which we read, "Unless one is born again of water and the Holy Spirit," testifies that water and the Holy Spirit alike are a creature.

But you say: The Holy Spirit is a creature to such a degree that he seems to be joined to the element of water, which is placed here in the first place and order, according to the evangelical sentence which was mentioned above: "Unless one is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (Ibid.). For it is manifest that the one who says these things is ignorant not only of the divine power in the Holy Spirit, but of the very nature of baptism. But consider how we can die and rise with Christ, if the matter requires it. All of us, whoever are submerged in the sacred font, imitate the death and burial of the Redeemer, as the same Apostle says: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized in Christ have been baptized in his death? For we have been buried with him through baptism into death" (Rom. VI). For just as he was laid in the tomb by a three-day death, so we too, deposited within the water, that is, within the substance of a kindred creature, by a threefold submersion—while we descend we are buried, while we emerge we are raised. Through water, therefore, the imitation of burial is celebrated; through the Holy Spirit, the truth of life and the hope of eternal salvation is conferred. Finally, let the invocation of the Holy Spirit be removed, and let us see whether the mere infusion of that water can profit anything.

Therefore it is a creature that performs the office of burial; it is God who bestows the benefit of rebirth. Whom, then, you perceive to be the parent of restoration, recognize him also to be the author of resurrection. Of him the prophet foretells, and thus speaks to the Father: Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth (Ps. 103). What is the difference between the working of water and of the Holy Spirit? Through water we seem to be led down to the tomb; through the Holy Spirit we seem to be prepared for the kingdom.

CHAPTER VI.

Where it is asked whether the designation "Holy Spirit" is to be considered a surname or a name.

But amid these matters you believe it must be asked whether the designation "Holy Spirit," whom it is necessary to call God, is a name or perhaps a surname. But I recognize that what we are accustomed to attach to a name among men does not befit the majesty of God; in his name whatever there is is by no means an adjective, but is without doubt naturally eternal. Also in grammatical doctrine it calls some nouns common, that is, appellative, and others special, that is, proper. Let us see whether in our case we can find anything similar in this place. Give in God a special or proper name, that is, Father and Son and Holy Spirit. To such an extent are these proper that the Father cannot be called [the name] of the Son, nor is the Holy Spirit readily read as [the name] of the Father. Again give the proper [names]: unbegotten, proceeding from both. Again give the general and common name: Majesty, immensity, fullness, one, alone, God.

But when you hear "one," the number here is not begun but an infinite perfection is gathered. What is "one," except a name that cannot be shared, which admits neither a later nor an earlier? What is "one," except a simple, uncompounded, and undivided substance? What is "one," except that which is incommunicable and without equal, and always the same, which can never be different from itself? And so the common designation [expresses] unity. Therefore, when you have said "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit," you have set forth the persons of each individually. When you have said "one God," you have shown the common substance of the Trinity, the common glory. Here, then, ignorance has spread the night of error over itself, while, suppressing the word of majesty, it esteems the Holy Spirit under that name only which, as we have said, is proper to him, rather than that which is common to him with the Father and the Son.

CHAPTER VII.

That the Holy Spirit specially fills the prophets, and is equally believed and called God, is approved by evident testimonies.

Since the Holy Spirit is reported to have spoken specifically through Moses and David and Isaiah, or the other prophets, the divine utterances declare that God spoke, as is frequently repeated in the volume of the Pentateuch; "the Lord," it says, "spoke to Moses, saying." Let us inquire more carefully whether the Holy Spirit speaks specifically in the prophets. We have, as we said before, in the Acts of the Apostles, Paul reproving the Jews: "Well," it says, "did the Holy Spirit speak through Isaiah to our fathers: You shall hear with hearing, and shall not understand." And in the same reading: "Men, brothers, it is necessary that the scripture be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit foretold through the mouth of David." And in the epistle of Peter we read: "For prophecy was not ever brought by human will, but holy men of God spoke by the Holy Spirit." Let us acknowledge that the prophetic grace evidently belongs to the power of the Holy Spirit. And concerning the psalm of David we read thus to the Hebrews: "Wherefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today if you hear his voice." And here he testifies most openly that the Holy Spirit spoke through David. But let us see whether God is he through whom every inspired prophecy is recorded. He asserts that it is the Lord God who spoke through the prophets, saying thus: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because he has visited and wrought redemption for his people." And he added: "As he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been from the beginning of the world.

That the Holy Spirit who inspired the prophets is the Lord and God of Israel is celebrated by the Gospel oracle. And in the following passage Simeon, full of the Holy Spirit: "He had received," he says, "an answer from the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had first seen the Christ of the Lord" (Luke 2). Having seen him and taken him into his arms, he blessed God, that is, the one from whom he appeared to have received the answer. He blessed God and said: "Now you dismiss your servant, Lord, according to your word, in peace." And he absolutely calls Lord God the Holy Spirit, by whose word and answer he had received that he would see Christ. You see that it must be understood specifically of the Holy Spirit when it is said among the prophets: "God, the God of gods, the Lord has spoken"; "I will hear what the Lord God speaks in me" (Psalm 49). Here that name, that is, "Lord," by whose word and answer he had received that he would see Christ, you see must be understood specifically of the Holy Spirit, when it is said among the prophets: "God, the God of gods, the Lord has spoken." And, "I will hear what the Lord God speaks in me.

Here that name, that is, "Lord God," you should know must be referred to the person of the Holy Spirit who spoke in David; or at any rate, in the one God recognize the will of the three, the power of the three, the substance of the three, because when you say "Father," one person is understood; when you say "God," the whole Trinity is designated. We receive also in the Acts of the Apostles that he is undoubtedly God who foretold the sufferings of Christ through the prophets, when it says: "But the God who announced through the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ should suffer, fulfilled it thus in his Christ" (Acts 3); that is, infused with the grace of his anointing. And again: "Who spoke by the mouth of his holy ones" (Luke 1). Therefore "of his holy ones," because sanctification properly belongs to the Holy Spirit. We read in Jeremiah: "Do I not fill heaven and earth, says the Lord" (Jeremiah 23)? Who is this Lord who through Jeremiah says that he fills heaven and earth, except the Holy Spirit, who infused both Jeremiah himself with prophetic power and the spirit of truth? If therefore through the prophetic dispensation, so also the grace of the second birth is assigned by the will of the Trinity to the Holy Spirit most especially, as it says in John: "What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit." And in another place the power of renewing man is written to belong to the Holy Spirit. "But you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now" (John 3).

And as was said above: Unless one is born again of water and the Holy Spirit. And to Titus: He saved us, he says, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. Let us see who this is whose sons we are made through the grace of adoption. He gave them, it says, the power to become sons of God. And again: Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God. You see most plainly that this Holy Spirit in whom we are reborn is God, by whose fatherhood we are endowed. He sets this forth elsewhere more clearly than light: I will be, he says, to them a father, and they shall be to me sons and daughters, says the Lord almighty (Tit. 1). Rightly almighty, who blots out the handwriting of sin, who loosens the chains of consciences, and strips the man who believes in him of the foulness of corrupted nature, and adorns him with the garment of innocence, the beauty of justice, the robe of immortality, and enrolls his sons in the angelic state with loving fatherhood. Let no one think the Holy Spirit is to be joined with creatures. He is outside the condition of slavery who can bestow eternal liberty. For, says the Apostle, you did not receive the spirit of slavery again in fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption of sons, and the Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are sons of God (Rom. 8). Without doubt he is God who through the remission of sins makes sons of God.

It is established that the whole creation, even of angels and archangels, was subject to sin; yet their obedience toward God, their solicitude, their love, the ruin of the transgressors established; the humility of subjection became the confirmation of stability, the acknowledgment of fragility, the Holy Spirit. Unless he were free before all things, he could not make free men out of servants. For if he were a creature, however much the grace of sanctity in him might crush it, the consciousness of being a debtor would nonetheless have remained. And therefore he says: No one can forgive sins except God alone (Mark 2; Luke 5). Whoever that one is, let him choose which he wishes: either let him confess that the Holy Spirit, who forgives sins, is God in all respects, or, if he does not believe that forgiveness of sins can be given through him, he has made void in himself the benefit of regeneration and the sacrament of baptism. It is therefore God's alone to absolve those bound, to restore what is corrupted, to expiate what is stained. And therefore, conscious of our infirmity and of his majesty, we cry out with gentle voice: Against you alone have I sinned (Ps. 50), O Lord, who alone are not bound by the law of sin, who alone are alien to it not actually but naturally, and therefore can absolve debtors, who alone are immune from debts, who have what you have not borrowed from elsewhere but are full from your own.

For no one gave to you beforehand, nor are you watered by virtues derived from elsewhere, nor is there any transfusion into you from some other source; but you yourself are the fountain of your own river, and your glory is your own nature, just as a messenger knows nothing, so it has received nothing from a prior source.

CHAPTER VIII.

Where it is shown that the temple of God is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

The sacred Scriptures properly define the Holy Spirit as the inhabitant of the human heart: The Father, it says, will give you another Paraclete, that he may remain with you forever. And to the Romans: He will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who dwells in you. And therefore we rightly understand what is written concerning the Holy Spirit: The kingdom of God is within you. And his kingdom belongs to those alone who merit to obey him, as a temple of God certainly, not of a creature. Hear through the Apostle the voice of our inhabitant: You, he says, are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you. And in another place, as God says: I will dwell in them, and walk among them, and I will be their God. Behold, he who inhabits the temple of the human heart declares himself to be God. Ananias was among those who, honoring God, sold their possessions from their just labors and laid them at the feet of the apostles. He is acknowledged to have promised a vow to God, and is more justly convicted of having lied to the Holy Spirit, as the apostle Peter says: Ananias, why has Satan tempted your heart, that you should lie to the Holy Spirit?

And he added, following on: You have not lied to men, but to God. What is this? Does he sin against the Creator, and does Scripture so diminish his sin as to set him, according to the sense of impiety, as a thing of the creature, and make him a debtor to the lesser for the contumely of the greater? It is not so. The divine power is manifestly attributed to him against whom the offense of sacrilege is referred, of whom it is said in another place: But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not have forgiveness, neither in this age nor in the age to come (Matthew 12). When, therefore, by transgression he tempted God, he is said to have deceived the Holy Spirit. Wherefore acknowledge the Holy Spirit and God as one cause, one glory, one reverence. And therefore most evidently concerning the Holy Spirit he concludes in the following discourse: He did not, he says, lie to men, but to God. When Peter was speaking to Cornelius, the faithful of the circumcision who had come with Peter stood against him, because the grace of the Holy Spirit had also been poured out upon the nations (Acts 10). You see that the Holy Spirit conferred not from another's, but from his own. If you ask who it is that gave them grace, it is God. Him whom he declared above to be the Holy Spirit, the giver of grace, here he specifically declared to be God; there by a proper name, here by a common name, the repeated confession is proved. But when he says that the grace of the Holy Spirit was poured out also upon the nations, he is God by nature, who is the author of grace.

To God alone it belongs to bestow the gifts of his graces from his own store, so that the Apostle may be seen to have said of him: They labored in all things. Yet not I, but the grace of God with me (1 Cor 15). Justly is he proclaimed God, who is the dispenser of grace and of human salvation. And Peter added: Who was I, that I could hinder God (Acts 11)? That God, surely, who is among the nations, or who poured out upon Cornelius the surge of overflowing grace.

CHAPTER IX.

Where it is shown against the Novatians that God gave repentance unto life to the Gentiles, and that this God is assuredly the Holy Spirit, by the very order of the reading.

Observe how, in the person of the Holy Spirit, who suddenly filled Cornelius and his companions, the name of God is celebrated with manifold attestation. When they heard these things, he says, they were silent, and glorified God, saying: Therefore God has also given repentance unto life to the Gentiles (Acts 11)? In this place it must be noted against the Novatians that he is said to give repentance, which he certainly does not bestow otherwise than through the ministry of his servants. Since, therefore, he says: Who was I, that I could hinder God; and again: Therefore God has given repentance unto life to the Gentiles, what interpretation of these manifest matters is there that would not satisfy even the ignorant, or the unbelieving, in the coming of the Holy Spirit, by the confession of the divine name repeated so many times?

CHAPTER X.

Where it is declared from the first Epistle to the Corinthians that the Holy Spirit is God, by reason of the distributions of virtues.

Receive what is written to the Corinthians, which alone could suffice to assert the divinity of the Holy Spirit. He says through the Epistle to the Hebrews: God bearing witness by signs and wonders and various virtues, and by distributions of the Holy Spirit according to his own will (Heb 2). Let us ask the apostle himself whether this distributor of charisms is one of the creatures. We have it in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: I make known to you that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says anathema to Jesus. And no one can say Lord Jesus, except in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12). Observe how here he has most absolutely designated the Spirit of God to be the Holy Spirit; by the Holy Spirit, whom from the preceding sentence he had proposed as speaking the Spirit of God. Clearly they follow, which manifestly testify that he is God and Lord. Divisions, he says, of graces there are, but the same Spirit; and there are divisions of ministrations, but the same Lord; and there are divisions of operations, but the same God. As if the blessed apostle had been consulted concerning the divinity of the Holy Spirit, evidently concerning him of whom he had said, the same Spirit, he adds: the same God, who works all things in all. He could not work all things if he were one of all things; here he has acknowledged the Holy Spirit, whether expressed evidently both in his own name and as Lord and God, or at least as associated with the Trinity.

But here, in the divisions of gifts, the divine discourse is understood to have designated the Holy Spirit, since above we have received that the grace of distributions belongs to the Holy Spirit by a special dispensation. But what he said, "The same Lord, and the same God," he shows in the following chapter must be referred to the Holy Spirit, saying: "To one indeed through the Spirit is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge in the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another the grace of healings in one Spirit, to another the working of virtues, to another prophecy, to another the discerning of spirits, to another kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of speeches; but all these things one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each one as he wills." He is subject to no one, but is a heavenly Lord, who bestows heavenly gifts by his own will and by the right of his power.

CHAPTER XI.

It must be noted that, just as it says one God, so it says one Holy Spirit, which could in no way be said of a common creature, or of one who divides to each as he wills.

You see that just as there is one Father and one Son, so also there is one Holy Spirit, as he accordingly assigns: For we have all been made to drink in one Spirit. If this were from the common people or from the multitude of creation, it could not be called one at all. And since here you have, he says, to another is given faith in the same Spirit (Hom. XII), who grants this faith, the same Apostle declared to the Corinthians, saying: And to each one as God divided the measure of faith (Hebr.). You see that he declares without doubt that this divider of faith is God. Although in so manifold a generosity of such great gifts, the very magnificence of the work itself speaks the power of the author, nevertheless he concluded concerning him thus: But all these things are worked by one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one as he wills. As also in another place: The Spirit blows where he wills. And again: And the Holy Spirit in distributions according to his own will (I Cor. XII). Here, therefore, it is not the servitude of subject ministries, but the free choice of power, and in the distributions of heavenly goods the goodness of the highest generosity is poured out. How does he say that this distributor, that is, divider, is also of the distribution of the Holy Spirit? Whether he is God, he taught to the Corinthians, saying: And there are divisions of operations, but the same God. We read in the Acts of the Apostles: Take heed, he says, to yourselves and to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as bishops to rule the Church of God (Act. XX). This one who placed bishops in the Church.

The vessel of election declares that God is, speaking thus to the Corinthians: Some indeed God has placed in the Church. What are these but the Holy Spirit, whose person's office the distribution of graces shows, as he continues in the following discourse? God placed, he says, in the Church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then powers, then graces of healings, helps, governments, kinds of tongues. Some, he says, God has placed in the Church. That he here called God the Holy Spirit, the very dispensation of sanctifications and powers that pertains to the Holy Spirit makes manifest. For he himself enriches the mouths of prophets, dispenses the remedies of healings, multiplies the ornaments of charisms; and when he flowed into the apostles, they sang that he is God of the universe, by the miracles of signs and the diverse kinds of tongues.

CHAPTER XII.

Where he says that those who have been made a temple of the Holy Spirit ought so to advance that they may merit to bear God in the body.

Thus the Apostle says to the Corinthians: Do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Spirit? That the temple of the Holy Spirit is a temple of God, the preceding words of the same Epistle clearly insinuate, when it is said: Do you not know that you are the temple of God? and the Holy Spirit dwells in you, and the Spirit, he says, of God dwells in you. Who would doubt that they are the temple of that God whose dwelling they are shown to be? And when he had said: Do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, he concluded the passage with brilliant truth: Glorify, he says, and bear God in your body. Therefore he who diligently prepares a temple of purity in his heart for the Holy Spirit, through chastity and the mortification of the flesh bears God in his body. It is necessary that he bear bodily the one by whom we are possessed spiritually. Wherefore whom you perceive to be worthy of a temple, you will have recognized as to be adored with divine honors, celebrated with vows, and honored with sacrifices. Therefore the teacher of the Gentiles speaks to the universal Church: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you. This is possible for no creature, but it is the mark of divine majesty, that he fills peoples individually through each one, and yet remains in the immensity of his fullness. It is, he says, the singular and proper property of the divine nature to be present in all places, to enter into all things, and to contain all things.

It is, he says, God's peculiar prerogative to strip the sons of perdition of the debts of nature, to renew purified consciences, to make them sons of God, and to exalt them into the glory of the heavenly kingdom.