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27. We have sufficiently spoken of the Father and of the Son, so
far as was possible for us to see through this glass and in this
enigma. We must now treat of the Holy Spirit, so far as by God's
gift it is permitted to see Him. And the Holy Spirit, according to
the Holy Scriptures, is neither of the Father alone, nor of the
Son alone, but of both; and so intimates to us a mutual love,
wherewith the Father and the Son reciprocally love one another. But
the language of the Word of God, in order to exercise us, has caused
those things to be sought into with the greater zeal, which do not lie
on the surface, but are to be scrutinized in hidden depths, and to be
drawn out from thence. The Scriptures, accordingly, have not said,
The Holy Spirit is Love. If they had said so, they would have
done away with no small part of this inquiry. But they have said,
"God is love;" so that it is uncertain and remains to be inquired
whether God the Father is love, or God the Son, or God the Holy
Ghost, or the Trinity itself which is God. For we are not going to
say that God is called Love because love itself is a substance worthy
of the name of God, but because it is a gift of God, as it is said
to God, "Thou art my patience." For this is not said because our
patience is God's substance, but in that He Himself gives it to
us; as it is elsewhere read, "Since from Him is my patience."
For the usage of words itself in Scripture sufficiently refutes this
interpretation; for "Thou art my patience" is of the same kind as
"Thou, Lord, art my hope," and "The Lord my God is my
mercy," and many like texts. And it is not said, O Lord my love,
or, Thou art my love, or, God my love; but it is said thus,
"God is love," as it is said, "God is a Spirit." And he who
does not discern this, must ask understanding from the Lord, not an
explanation from us; for we cannot say anything more clearly.
28. "God," then, "is love;" but the question is, whether the
Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, or the Trinity itself:
because the Trinity is not three Gods, but one God. But I have
already argued above in this book, that the Trinity, which is God,
is not so to be understood from those three things which have been set
forth in the trinity of our mind, as that the Father should be the
memory of all three, and the Son the understanding of all three, and
the Holy Spirit the love of all three; as though the Father should
neither understand nor love for Himself, but the Son should
understand for Him, and the Holy Spirit love for Him, but He
Himself should remember only both for Himself and for them; nor the
Son remember nor love for Himself, but the Father should remember
for Him, and the Holy Spirit love for Him, but He Himself
understand only both for Himself and them; nor likewise that the Holy
Spirit should neither remember nor understand for Himself, but the
Father should remember for Him, and the Son understand for Him,
while He Himself should love only both for Himself and for them; but
rather in this way, that both all and each have all three each in His
own nature. Nor that these things should differ in them, as in us
memory is one thing, understanding another, love or charity another,
but should be some one thing that is equivalent to all, as wisdom
itself; and should be so contained in the nature of each, as that He
who has it is that which He has, as being an unchangeable and simple
substance. If all this, then, has been understood, and so far as is
granted to us to see or conjecture in things so great, has been made
patently true, know not why both the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit should not be called Love, and all together one love, just as
both the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is called Wisdom,
and all together not three, but one wisdom. For so also both the
Father is God, and the Son God, and the Holy Ghost God, and
all three together one God.
29. And yet it is not to no purpose that in this Trinity the Son
and none other is called the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit and
none other the Gift of God, and God the Father alone is He from
whom the Word is born, and from whom the Holy Spirit principally
proceeds. And therefore I have added the word principally, because
we find that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son also. But the
Father gave Him this too, not as to one already existing, and not
yet having it; but whatever He gave to the only-begotten Word, He
gave by begetting Him. Therefore He so begat Him as that the common
Gift should proceed from Him also, and the Holy Spirit should be
the Spirit of both. This distinction, then, of the inseparable
Trinity is not to be merely accepted in passing, but to be carefully
considered; for hence it was that the Word of God was specially
called also the Wisdom of God, although both Father and Holy
Spirit are wisdom. If, then, any one of the three is to be
specially called Love, what more fitting than that it should be the
Holy Spirit? namely, that in that simple and highest nature,
substance should not be one thing and love another, but that substance
itself should be love, and love itself should be substance, whether in
the Father, or in the Son, or in the Holy Spirit; and yet that
the Holy Spirit should be specially called Love.
30. Just as sometimes all the utterances of the Old Testament
together in the Holy Scriptures are signified by the name of the
Law. For the apostle, in citing a text from the prophet Isaiah,
where he says, "With divers tongues and with divers lips will I
speak to this people," yet prefaced it by, "It is written in the
Law." And the Lord Himself says, "It is written in their Law,
They hated me without a cause," whereas this is read in the Psalm.
And sometimes that which was given by Moses is specially called the
Law: as it is said, "The Law and the Prophets were until
John;" and, "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the
Prophets." Here, certainly, that is specially called the Law
which was from Mount Sinai. And the Psalms, too, are signified
under the name of the Prophets; and yet in another place the Saviour
Himself says, "All things must needs be fulfilled, which are
written in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms concerning
me." Here, on the other side, He meant the name of Prophets to be
taken as not including the Psalms. Therefore the Law with the
Prophets and the Psalms taken together is called the Law
universally, and the Law is also specially so called which was given
by Moses. Likewise the Prophets are so called in common together
with the Psalms, and they are also specially so called exclusive of
the Psalms. And man), other instances might be adduced to teach
us, that many names of things are both put universally, and also
specially applied to particular things, were it not that a long
discourse is to be avoided in a plain case. I have said so much, lest
any one should think that it was therefore unsuitable for us to call the
Holy Spirit Love, because both God the Father and God t.he Son
can be called Love.
31. As, then, we call the only Word of God specially by the name
of Wisdom, although universally both the Holy Spirit and the Father
Himself is wisdom; so the Holy Spirit is specially called by the
name of Love, although universally both the Father and the Son are
love. But the Word of God, i.e. the only-begotten Son of God,
is expressly called the Wisdom of God by the mouth of the apostle,
where he says, "Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."
But where the Holy Spirit is called Love, is to be found by careful
scrutiny of the language of John the apostle, who, after saying,
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God," has gone
on to say, "And every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth
God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love."
Here, manifestly, he has called that love God, which he said was of
God; therefore God of God is love. But because both the Son is
born of God the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the
Father, it is rightly asked which of them we ought here to think is
the rather called the love that is God. For the Father only is so
God as not to be of God; and hence the love that is so God as to be
of God, is either the Son or the Holy Spirit. But when, in what
follows, the apostle had mentioned the love of God, not that by which
we love Him, but that by which He "loved us, and sent His Son to
be a propitiator for our sins," and thereupon had exhorted us also to
love one another, and that so God would abide in us, because,
namely, he had called God Love; immediately, in his wish to speak
yet more expressly on the subject, "Hereby," he says, "know we
that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of
His Spirit." Therefore the Holy Spirit, of whom He hath given
us, makes us to abide in God, and Him in us; and this it is that
love does. Therefore He is the God that is love. Lastly, a little
after, when he had repeated the same thing, and had said "God is
love," he immediately subjoined, "And he who abideth in love,
abideth in God, and God abideth in him;" whence he had said above,
"Hereby we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He
hath given us of His Spirit." He therefore is signified, where we
read that God is love. Therefore God the Holy Spirit, who
proceedeth from the Father, when He has been given to man, inflames
him to the love of God and of his neighbor, and is Himself love.
For man has not whence to love God, unless from God; and therefore
he says a little after, "Let us love Him, because He first loved
us." The Apostle Paul, too, says, "The love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us."
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