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12. The Holy Spirit, then, is also said to be sent, on account
of these corporeal forms which came into existence in time, in order to
signify and manifest Him, as He must needs be manifested, to human
senses; yet He is not said to be less than the Father, as the Son,
because He was in the form of a servant, is said to be; because that
form of a servant inhered in the unity of the person of the Son, but
those corporeal forms appeared for a time, in order to show what was
necessary to be shown, and then ceased to be. Why, then, is not the
Father also said to be sent, through those corporeal forms, the fire
of the bush, and the pillar of cloud or of fire, and the lightnings in
the mount, and whatever other things of the kind appeared at that
time, when (as we have learned from Scripture testimony) He spake
face to face with the fathers, if He Himself was manifested by those
modes and forms of the creature, as exhibited ant presented corporeally
to human sight? But if the Son was manifested by them, why is He
said to be sent so long after, when He was made of a woman, as the
apostle says, "But when the fullness of time was come, God sent
forth His Son, made of a woman," seeing that He was sent also
before, when He appeared to the fathers by those changeable forms of
the creature? Or if He cannot rightly be said to be sent, unless
when the Word was made flesh, why is the Holy Spirit said to be
sent, of whom no such incarnation was ever wrought? But if by those
visible things, which are put before us in the Law and in the
prophets, neither the Father nor the Son but the Holy Spirit was
manifested, why also is He said to be sent now, when He was sent
also before after these modes?
13. In the perplexity of this inquiry, the Lord helping us, we
must ask, first, whether the Father, or the Son, or the Holy
Spirit; or whether, sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son,
sometimes the Holy Spirit; or whether it was without any distinction
of persons, in such way as the one and only God is Spoken of, that
is, that the Trinity itself appeared to the Fathers by those forms of
the creature. Next, whichever of these alternatives shall have been
found or thought true, whether for this purpose only the creature was
fashioned, wherein God, as He judged it suitable at that time,
should be shown to human sight; or whether angels, who already
existed, were so sent, as to speak in the person of God, taking a
corporeal form from the corporeal creature, for the purpose of their
ministry, as each had need; or else, according to the power the
Creator has given them, changing and converting their own body
itself, to which they are not subject, but govern it as subject to
themselves, into whatever appearances they would that were suited and
apt to their several actions. Lastly, we shall discern that which it
was our purpose to ask, viz. whether the Son and the Holy Spirit
were also sent before; and, if they were so sent, what difference
there is between that sending, and the one which we read of in the
Gospel; or whether in truth neither of them were sent, except when
either the Son was made of the Virgin Mary, or the Holy Spirit
appeared in a visible form, whether in the dove or in tongues of fire.
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