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Further, in that Highest Trinity which is God, there are no
intervals of time, by which it could be shown, or at least inquired,
whether the Son was born of the Father first and then afterwards the
Holy Spirit proceeded from both; since Holy Scripture calls Him
the Spirit of both. For it is He of whom the apostle says, "But
because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into
your hearts:" and it is He of whom the same Son says, "For it is
not ye who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaketh in
you." And it is proved by many other testimonies of the Divine
Word, that the Spirit, who is specially called in the Trinity the
Holy Spirit, is of the Father and of the Son: of whom likewise the
Son Himself says, "Whom I will send unto you from the Father;"
and in another place, "Whom the Father will send in my name.''
And we are so taught that He proceeds from both, because the Son
Himself says, He proceeds from the Father. And when He had risen
from the dead, and had appeared to His disciples, "He breathed upon
them, and said, Receive the Holy Ghost," so as to show that He
proceeded also from Himself. And Itself is that very "power that
went out from Him," as we read in the Gospel, "and healed them
all."
46. But the reason why, after His resurrection, He both gave the
Holy Spirit, first on earth, and afterwards sent Him from heaven,
is in my judgment this: that "love is shed abroad in our hearts," by
that Gift itself, whereby we love God and our neighbors, according
to those two commandments,"on which hang all the law and the
prophets." And Jesus Christ, in order to signify this, gave to
them the Holy Spirit, once upon earth, on account of the love of our
neighbor, and a second time from heaven, on account of the love of
God. And if some other reason may perhaps be given for this double
gift of the Holy Spirit, at any rate we ought not to doubt that the
same Holy Spirit was given when Jesus breathed upon them, of whom
He by and by says, "Go, baptize all nations in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," where this
Trinity is especially commended to us. It is therefore He who was
also given from heaven on the day of Pentecost, i.e. ten days after
the Lord ascended into heaven. How, therefore, is He not God,
who gives the Holy Spirit? Nay, how great a God is He who gives
God! For no one of His disciples gave the Holy Spirit, since they
prayed that He might come upon those upon whom they laid their hands:
they did not give Him themselves. And the Church preserves this
custom even now in the case of her rulers. Lastly, Simon Magus
also, when he offered the apostles money, does not say, "Give me
also this power, that I may give" the Holy Spirit; but, "that on
whomsoever I may lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Spirit."
Because neither had the Scriptures said before, And Simon, seeing
that the apostles gave the Holy Spirit; but it had said," And
Simon, seeing that the Holy Spirit was given by the laying on of the
apostles' hands." Therefore also the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
not only gave the Holy Spirit as God, but also received it as man,
and therefore He is said to be full of grace, and of the Holy
Spirit. And in the Acts of the Apostles it is more plainly written
of Him, "Because God anointed Him With the Holy Spirit."
Certainly not with visible oil but with the gift of grace which is
signified by the visible ointment wherewith the Church anoints the
baptized. And Christ was certainly not then anointed with the Holy
Spirit, when He, as a dove, descended upon Him at His baptism.
For at that time He deigned to prefigure His body, i.e. His
Church, in which especially the baptized receive the Holy Spirit.
But He is to be understood to have been then anointed with that
mystical and invisible unction, when the Word of God was made flesh,
i.e. when human nature, without any precedent merits of good works,
was joined to God the Word in the womb of the Virgin, so that with
it it became one person. Therefore it is that we confess Him to have
been born of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary. For it is
most absurd to believe Him to have received the Holy Spirit when He
was near thirty years old: for at that age He was baptized by John;
but that He came to baptism as without any sin at all, so not without
the Holy Spirit. For if it was written of His servant and
forerunner John himself, "He shall be filled with the Holy
Spirit, even from his mother's womb," because, although generated
by his father, yet he received the Holy Spirit when formed in the
womb; what must be understood and believed of the man Christ, of
whose flesh the very conception was not carnal, but spiritual? Both
natures, too, as well the human as the divine, are shown in that also
that is written of Him, that He received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Spirit, and shed forth the Holy Spirit: seeing that
He received as man, and shed forth as God. And we indeed can
receive that gift according to our small measure, but assuredly we
cannot shed it forth upon others; but, that this may be done, we
invoke over them God, by whom this is accomplished.
47. Are we therefore able to ask whether the Holy Spirit had
already proceeded from the Father when the Son was born, or had not
yet proceeded; and when He was born, proceeded from both, wherein
there is no such thing as distinct times: just as we have been able to
ask, in a case where we do find times, that the will proceeds from the
human mind first, in order that that may be sought which, when found,
may be called offspring; which offspring being already brought forth or
born, that will is made perfect, resting in this end, so that what
had been its desire when seeking, is its love when enjoying; which
love now proceeds from both, i.e. from the mind that begets, and
from the notion that is begotten, as if from parent and offspring?
These things it is absolutely impossible to ask in this case, where
nothing is begun in time, so as to be perfected in a time following.
Wherefore let him who can understand the generation of the Son from
the Father without time, understand also the procession of the Holy
Spirit from both without time. And let him who can understand, in
that which the Son says, "As the Father hath life in Himself, so
hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself,'' not that the
Father gave life to the Son already existing without life, but that
He so begat Him apart from time, that the life which the Father gave
to the Son by begetting Him is co-eternal with the life of the
Father who gave it: let him, I say, understand, that as the
Father has in Himself that the Holy Spirit should proceed from
Him, so has He given to the Son that the same Holy Spirit should
proceed from Him, and be both apart from time: and that the Holy
Spirit is so said to proceed from the Father as that it be understood
that His proceeding also from the Son, is a property derived by the
Son from the Father. For if the Son has of the Father whatever He
has, then certainly He has of the Father, that the Holy Spirit
proceeds also from Him. But let no one think of any times therein
which imply a sooner and a later; because these things are not there at
all. How, then, would it not be most absurd to call Him the Son of
both: when, just as generation from the Father, without any
changeableness of nature, gives to the Son essence, without beginning
of time; so procession from both, without any changeableness of
nature, gives to the Holy Spirit essence without beginning of time?
For while we do not say that the Holy Spirit is begotten, yet we do
not therefore dare to say that He is unbegotten, lest any one suspect
in this word either two Fathers in that Trinity, or two who are not
from another. For the Father alone is not from another, and
therefore He alone is called unbegotten, not indeed in the
Scriptures, but in the usage of disputants, who employ such language
as they can on so great a subject. And the Son is born of the
Father; and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father principally,
the Father giving the procession without any interval of time, yet in
common from both [Father and Son]. But He would be called the
Son of the Father and of the Son, if a thing abhorrent to the
feeling of all sound minds both had begotten Him. Therefore the
Spirit of both is not begotten of both, but proceeds from both.
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