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33. Is this too to be proved, that the Holy Spirit is called in
the sacred books the gift of God? If people look for this too, we
have in the Gospel according to John the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who says, " If any one thirst, let him come to me and
drink: he that believeth on me, as the Scripture saith, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water." And the evangelist has gone
on further to add, "And this He spake of the Spirit, which they
should receive who believe in Him.'' a And hence Paul the apostle
also says, "And we have all been made to drink into one Spirit."
The question then is, whether that water is called the gift of God
which is the Holy Spirit. But as we find here that this water is the
Holy Spirit, so we find elsewhere in the Gospel itself that this
water is called the gift of God. For when the same Lord was talking
with the woman of Samaria at the well, to whom He had said, "Give
me to drink," and she had answered that the Jews "have no dealings"
with the Samaritans, Jesus answered and said unto her, "If thou
hadst known the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give
me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have
given thee living water. The woman saith unto Him, Sir, thou hast
nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: whence then hast thou this
living water, etc.? Jesus answered and said unto her, Every one
that drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whose shall drink
of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water
that I shall give him, shall be in him a fountain of water springing
up unto eternal life." Because this living water, then, as the
evangelist has explained to us, is the Holy Spirit, without doubt
the Spirit is the gift of God, of which the Lord says here, "If
thou hadst known the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee,
Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would
have given thee living water." For that which is in the one passage,
"Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water," is in the
other, "shall be in him a fountain of water springing up unto eternal
life."
34. Paul the apostle also says, "To each of us is given grace
according to the measure of the gift of Christ;" and then, that he
might show that by the gift of Christ he meant the Holy Spirit, he
has gone on to add, "Wherefore He saith, He hath ascended up on
high, He hath led captivity captive, and hath given gifts to men."
And every one knows that the Lord Jesus, when He had ascended into
heaven after the resurrection from the dead, gave the Holy Spirit,
with whom they who believed were filled, and spake with the tongues of
all nations. And let no one object that he says gifts, not gift: for
he quoted the text from the Psalm. And in the Psalm it is read
thus, "Thou hast ascended up on high, Thou hast led captivity
captive, Thou hast received gifts in men." For so it stands in many
Mss., especially in the Greek Mss., and so we have it translated
from the Hebrew. The apostle therefore said gifts, as the prophet
did, not gift. But whereas the prophet said, "Thou hast received
gifts in men," the apostle has preferred saying, "He gave gifts to
men:" and this in order that the fullest sense may be gathered from
both expressions, the one prophetic, the other apostolic; because
both possess the authority of a divine utterance. For both are true,
as well that He gave to men, as that He received in men. He gave to
men, as the head to His own members: He Himself that gave,
received in men, no doubt as in His own members; on account of
which, namely, His own members, He cried from heaven, "Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me?" And of which, namely, His own
members, He says, "Since ye have done it to one of the least of
these that are mine, ye have done it unto me." Christ Himself,
therefore, both gave from heaven and received on earth. And further,
both prophet and apostle have said gifts for this reason, because many
gifts, which are proper to each, are divided in common to all the
members of Christ, by the Gift, which is the Holy Spirit. For
each severally has not all, but some have these and some have those;
although all have the Gift itself by which that which is proper to each
is divided to Him, i.e. the Holy Spirit. For elsewhere also,
when he had mentioned many gifts, "All these," he says, "worketh
that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to each severally as He
will." And this word is found also in the Epistle to the Hebrews,
where it is written, "God also bearing witness both with signs and
wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost."
And so here, when he had said, "He ascended up on high, He led
captivity captive, He gave gifts to men," he says further, "But
that He ascended, what is it but that He also first descended into
the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same also that
ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.
And He gave some apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists, and
some pastors and doctors." (This we see is the reason why gifts are
spoken of; because, as he says elsewhere, "Are all apostles? are
all prophets?" etc.) And here he has added, "For the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of
the body of Christ." This is the house which, as the Psalm sings,
is built up after the captivity; since the house of Christ, which
house is called His Church, is built up of those who have been
rescued from the devil, by whom they were held captive. But He
Himself led this captivity captive, who conquered the devil. And
that he might not draw with him into eternal punishment those who were
to become the members of the Holy Head, He bound him first by the
bonds of righteousness, and then by those of might. The devil
himself, there fore, is called captivity, which He led captive who
ascended up on high, and gave gifts to men, or received gifts in men.
35. And Peter the apostle, as we read in that canonical book,
wherein the Acts of the Apostles are recorded, when the hearts of the
Jews were troubled as he spake of Christ, and they said,
"Brethren, what shall we do? tell us," said to them, "Repent,
and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, for the remission of sins: and ye shall receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit." And we read likewise in the same book, that
Simon Magus desired to give money to the apostles, that he might
receive power from them, whereby the Holy Spirit might be given by
the laying on of his hands. And the same Peter said to him, "Thy
money perish with thee: because thou hast thought to purchase for money
the gift of God." And in another place of the same book, when
Peter was speaking to Cornelius, and to those who were with him, and
was announcing and preaching Christ, the Scripture says, "While
Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all
them that heard the word; and they of the circumcision that believed,
as many as came with Peter, were astonished, because that upon the
Gentiles also the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out. For they
heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God." And when Peter
afterwards was giving an account to the brethren that were at Jerusalem
of this act of his, that he had baptized those who were not
circumcised, because the Holy Spirit, to cut the knot of the
question, had come upon them before they were baptized, and the
brethren at Jerusalem were moved when they heard it, he says, after
the rest of his words, "And when I began to speak to them, the
Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us in the beginning. And I
remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, that John indeed
baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
If, therefore, He gave a like gift to them, as also to us who
believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I, that I could hinder
God from giving to them the Holy Spirit?" And there are many other
testimonies of the Scriptures, which unanimously attest that the Holy
Spirit is the gift of God, in so far as He is given to those who by
Him love God. But it is too long a task to collect them all. And
what is enough to satisfy those who are not satisfied with those we have
alleged?
36. Certainly they must be warned, since they now see that the
Holy Spirit is called the gift of God, that when they hear of "the
gift of the Holy Spirit," they should recognize therein that mode of
speech which is found in the words, "In the spoiling of the body of
the flesh." For as the body of the flesh is nothing else but the
flesh, so the gift of the Holy Spirit is nothing else but the Holy
Spirit. He is then the gift of God, so far as He is given to those
to whom He is given. But in Himself He is God, although He were
given to no one, because He was God co-eternal with the Father and
the Son before He was given to any one. Nor is He less than they,
because they give, and He is given. For He is given as a gift of
God in such way that He Himself also gives Himself as being God.
For He cannot be said not to be in His own power, of whom it is
said, "The Spirit bloweth where it listeth;" and the apostle
says, as I have already mentioned above, "All these things worketh
that selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will."
We have not here the creating of Him that is given, and the rule of
them that give, but the concord of the given and the givers.
37. Wherefore, if Holy Scripture proclaims that God is love,
and that love is of God, and works this in us that we abide in God
and He m us, and that hereby we know this, because He has given us
of His Spirit, then the Spirit Himself is God, who is love.
Next, if there [be among the gifts of God none greater than love,
and there is no greater gift of God than the Holy Spirit, what
follows more naturally than that He is Himself love, who is called
both God and of God? And if the love by which the Father loves the
Son, and the Son loves the Father, ineffably demonstrates the
communion of both, what is more suitable than that He should be
specially called love, who is the Spirit common to both? For this is
the sounder thing both to believe and to understand, that the Holy
Spirit is not alone love in that Trinity, yet is not specially called
love to no purpose, for the reasons we have alleged; just as He is
not alone in that Trinity either a Spirit or holy, since both the
Father is a Spirit, and the Son is a Spirit; and both the Father
is holy, and the Son is holy, as piety doubts not. And yet it is
not to no purpose that He is specially called the Holy Spirit; for
because He is common to both, He is specially called that which both
are in common. Otherwise, if in that Trinity the Holy Spirit alone
is love, then doubtless the Son too turns out to be the Son, not of
the Father only, but also of the Holy Spirit. For He is both said
and read in countless places to be so, the only-begotten Son of God
the Father; as that what the apostle says of God the Father is true
too: "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness.and hath
translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His own love." He did
not say, "of His own Son." If He had so said, He would have
said it most truly, just as He did say it most truly, because He has
often said it; but He says, "the Son of His own love."
Therefore He is the Son also of the Holy Spirit, if there is in
that Trinity no love in God except the Holy Spirit. And if this is
most absurd, it remains that the Holy Spirit is not alone therein
love, but is specially so called for the reasons I have sufficiently
set forth; and that the words, "Son of His own love," mean
nothing else than His own beloved Son, the Son, in short, of His
own substance. For the love in the Father, which is in His
ineffably simple nature, is nothing else than His very nature and
substance itself, as we have already often said, and are not ashamed
of often repeating. And hence the "Son of His love," is none
other than He who is born of His substance.
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