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1. WHEN our Lord gave the promise of the coming of His Holy
Spirit, He said, "He shall teach you all truth," or, as we read
in some copies, "He shall guide you into all truth. For He shall
not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He
speak." On these Gospel words we have already discoursed as the
Lord enabled us; and now give your attention to those that follow.
"And He will show you," He said, "things to come." Over
this, which is perfectly plain, there is no need to linger; for it
contains no question that demands from us any regular exposition. But
the words that He proceeds to add, "He shall make me clearly known;
for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you," are not
to be carelessly passed over. For by the words, "He shall make me
clearly known," we may understand, that by shedding abroad
[God's] love in the hearts of believers, and making them
spiritual, He showed them how it was that the Son was equal to the
Father, whom previously they had only known according to the flesh,
and as men themselves had thought of Him only as man. Or at least
that, filled themselves through that very love with boldness, and
divested of all fear, they might proclaim Christ unto men; and so
His fame be spread abroad through the whole world. So that He said,
"He shall make me clearly known," as if meaning, He shall free you
from fear, and endow you with a love that will so inflame your zeal in
preaching me, that you will send forth the odor, and commend the honor
of, my glory throughout the world. For what they were to do in the
Holy Spirit, He said that the Spirit Himself would also do, as is
implied in the words, "For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit
of your Father that speaketh in you." The Greek word, indeed,
which is doxaQei, has been rendered by the Latin interpreters in
their respective translations, clarificabit ("shall make clearly
known") by one, and glorificabit ("shall glorify") by another:
for the idea expressed in Greek by the one term doxa, from which is
derived the verb doxaQei, may be interpreted both by claritas
(brightness) and gloria (glory). For by glory every one becomes
bright, and glorious by brightness; and hence what is signified by
both words, is one and the same thing. And, as the most famous
writers of the Latin tongue in olden time have defined it, glory is
the generally diffused and accepted fame of any one accompanied with
praise. But when this happened in the world in regard to Christ, we
are not to suppose that it was the bestowing of any great thing on
Christ, but on the world. For to praise what is good is not of
benefit to that which receives, but to those who give the
commendation.
2. But there is also a false glory, when the praise given is the
result of a mistake, whether in regard to things or to persons, or to
both. For men are mistaken in regard to things, when they think that
to be good which is evil; and in regard to persons, when they think
one to be good who is evil; and in regard to both, when what is
actually a vice is esteemed a virtue; and when he who is praised for
something is destitute of what he is supposed to have, whether he be
good or evil. To credit vain-glorious persons with the things they
profess, is surely a huge vice, and not a virtue; and yet you know
how common is the laudatory fame of such; for, as Scripture says,
"The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who
practises iniquity is blessed." Here those who praise are not
mistaken in the persons, but in the things; for that is evil which
they believe to be good. But those who are morally corrupted with the
evil of prodigality are undoubtedly such as those who praise them do not
simply suspect, but perceive them to be. But further, if one feign
himself a just man, and be not so, but, as regards all that he seems
to do in a praiseworthy way in the sight of men, does it not for
God's sake, that is, for the sake of true righteousness, but makes
glory from men the only glory he seeks and hankers after; while those
with whom his extolled fame is generally accepted think of him only as
living in a praiseworthy way for God's sake, they are not mistaken in
the thing, but are deceived in the person. For that which they
believe to be good, is good; but the person whom they believe to be
good, is the reverse. But if, for example, skill in magical arts be
esteemed good, and any one, so long as he is believed to have
delivered his country by those same arts whereof all the while he is
utterly ignorant, attain amongst the irreligious to that generally
accepted renown which is defined as glory, those who so praise err in
both respects; to wit, both in the thing, for they esteem that good
which is evil; and in the person, for he is not at all what they
suppose him. But when, in regard to any one who is righteous by
God's grace and for God's sake, in other words, truly righteous,
there is on account of that very righteousness a generally accepted fame
of a laudatory kind, then the glory is indeed a true one; and yet we
are not to suppose that thereby the righteous man is made blessed, but
rather those who praise him are to be congratulated, because they judge
rightly, and love the righteous. And how much more, then, did
Christ the Lord, by His own glory, benefit, not Himself, but
those whom He also benefited by His death?
3. But that is not a true glory which He has among heretics, with
whom, nevertheless, He appears to have a generally accepted fame
accompanied with praise. Such is no true glory, because in both
respects they are mistaken, for they both think that to be good which
is not good, and they suppose Christ to be what Christ is not. For
to say that the only-begotten Son is not equal to Him that begat, is
not good: to say that the only-begotten Son of God is man only, and
not God, is not good: to say that the flesh of the Truth is not true
flesh, is not good. Of the three doctrines which I have stated, the
first is held by the Arians, the second by the Photinians, and the
third by the Manicheans. But inasmuch as there is nothing in any of
them that is good, and Christ has nothing to do with them, in both
respects they are in the wrong; and they attach no true glory to
Christ, although there may appear to be amongst them a generally
accepted fame regarding Christ of a laudatory character. And
accordingly all heretics together, whom it would be too tedious to
enumerate, who have not right views regarding Christ, err on this
account, that their views are untrue regarding both good things and
evil. The pagans, also, of whom great numbers are lauders of
Christ, are themselves also mistaken in both respects, saying, as
they do, not in accordance with the truth of God, but rather with
their own conjectures, that He was a magician. For they reproach
Christians as being destitute of skill; but Christ they laud as a
magician, and so betray what it is that they love: Christ indeed they
do not love, since what they love is that which Christ never was.
And thus, then, in both respects they are in error, for it is wicked
to be a magician; and as Christ was good, He was not a magician.
Wherefore, as we have nothing to say in this place of those who malign
and blaspheme Christ, for it is of His glory we speak, wherewith He
was glorified in the world, it was only in the holy Catholic Church
that the Holy Spirit glorified Him with His true glory. For
elsewhere, that is, either among heretics or certain pagans, the
glory He has in the world cannot be a true one, even where there is a
generally accepted fame of Him accompanied with praise. His true
glory, therefore, in the Catholic Church is celebrated in these
words by the prophet: "Be thou exalted, O God, above the
heavens; and Thy glory above all the earth." Accordingly, that
after His exaltation the Holy Spirit was to come, and to glorify
Him, the sacred psalm, and the Only-begotten Himself, promised as
an event of the future, which we see accomplished.
4. But when He says, "He shall receive of mine, and shall show
it unto you," listen thereto with Catholic ears, and receive it with
Catholic minds. For not surely on that account, as certain heretics
have imagined, is the Holy Spirit inferior to the Son; as if the
Son received from the Father, and the Holy Spirit from the Son,
in reference to certain gradations of natures. Far be it from us to
believe this, or to say it, and from Christian hearts to think it.
In fine, He Himself straightway solved the question, and explained
why He said so. "All things that the Father hath are mine:
therefore, said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it
unto you." What would you more? The Holy Spirit thus receives of
the Father, of whom the Son receives; for in this Trinity the Son
is born of the Father, and from the Father the Holy Spirit
proceedeth. He, however, who is born of none, and proceedeth from
none, is the Father alone. But in what sense it is that the
only-begotten Son said, "All things that the Father hath are
mine" (for it certainly was not in the same sense as when it was said
to that son, who was not only begotten, but the eider of two, "Thou
art ever with me; and all that I have is thine)," will have our
careful consideration, if the Lord so will, in connection with the
passage where the Only-begotten saith to the Father, "And all mine
are Thine, and Thine are mine;" so that our present discourse may
be here brought to a close, as the words that follow require a
different opening for their discussion.
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