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37. Let us then revert to the point raised from the outset, that in
all things the Holy Spirit is inseparable and wholly incapable of
being parted from the Father and the Son. St. Paul, in the
passage about the gift of tongues, writes to the Corinthians, "If
ye all prophesy and there come in one that believeth not, or one
unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all; and thus are
the secrets of the heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face
he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth." If
then God is known to be in the prophets by the prophesying that is
acting according to the distribution of the gifts of the Spirit, let
our adversaries consider what kind of place they will attribute to the
Holy Spirit. Let them say whether it is more proper to rank Him
with God or to thrust Him forth to the place of the creature.
Peter's words to Sapphira, "How is it that ye have agreed together
to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Ye have not lied unto men, but
unto God," show that sins against the Holy Spirit and against God
are the same; and thus you might learn that in every operation the
Spirit is closely conjoined with, and inseparable from, the Father
and the Son. God works the differences of operations, and the Lord
the diversities of administrations, but all the while the Holy Spirit
is present too of His own will, dispensing distribution of the gifts
according to each recipient's worth. For, it is said, "there are
diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and differences of
administrations, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of
operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." "But
all these," it is said, "worketh that one and the self-same
Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will." It must not
however be supposed because in this passage the apostle names in the
first place the Spirit, in the second the Son, and in the third God
the Father, that therefore their rank is reversed. The apostle has
only started in accordance with our habits of thought; for when we
receive gifts, the first that occurs to us is the distributer, next we
think of the sender, and then we lift our thoughts to the fountain and
cause of the boons.
38. Moreover, from the things created at the beginning may be
learnt the fellowship of the Spirit with the Father and the Son.
The pure, intelligent, and supermundane powers are and are styled
holy, because they have their holiness of the grace given by the Holy
Spirit. Accordingly the mode of the creation of the heavenly powers
is passed over in Silence, for the historian of the cosmogony has
revealed to us only the creation of things perceptible by sense. But
do thou, who hast power from the things that are seen to form an
analogy of the unseen, glorify the Maker by whom all things were
made, visible and invisible, principalities and powers, authorities,
thrones, and dominions, and all other reasonable natures whom we
cannot name. And in the creation bethink thee first, I pray thee,
of the original cause of all things that are made, the Father; of the
creative cause, the Son; of the perfecting cause, the Spirit; so
that the ministering spirits subsist by the will of the Father, are
brought into being by the operation of the Son, and perfected by the
presence of the Spirit. Moreover, the perfection of angels is
sanctification and continuance in it. And let no one imagine me either
to affirm that there are three original hypostases or to allege the
operation of the Son to be imperfect. For the first principle of
existing things is One, creating through the Son and perfecting
through the Spirit. The operation of the Father who worketh all in
all is not imperfect, neither is the creating work of the Son
incomplete if not perfected by the Spirit. The Father, who creates
by His sole will, could not stand in any need of the Son, but
nevertheless He wills through the Son; nor could the Son, who works
according to the likeness of the Father, need co-operation, but the
Son too wills to make perfect through the Spirit. "For by the word
of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the
breath [the Spirit] of His mouth." The Word then is not a mere
significant impression on the air, borne by the organs of speech; nor
is the Spirit of His mouth a vapour, emitted by the organs of
respiration; but the Word is He who "was with God in the
beginning" and "was God," and the Spirit of the mouth of God is
"the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father." You are
therefore to perceive three, the Lord who gives the order, the Word
who creates, and the Spirit who confirms. And what other thing could
confirmation be than the perfecting according to holiness? This
perfecting expresses the confirmation's firmness, unchangeableness,
and fixity in good. But there is no sanctification without the
Spirit. The powers of the heavens are not holy by nature; were it so
there would in this respect be no difference between them and the Holy
Spirit. It is in proportion to their relative excellence that they
have their meed of holiness from the Spirit. The branding-iron is
conceived of together with the fire; and yet the material and the fire
are distinct. Thus too in the case of the heavenly powers; their
substance is, peradventure, an aerial spirit, or an immaterial fire,
as it is written, "Who maketh his angels spirits and his ministers a
flame of fire;" wherefore they exist in space and become visible, and
appear in their proper bodily form to them that are worthy. But their
sanctification, being external to their substance, superinduces their
perfection through the communion of the Spirit. They keep their rank
by their abiding in the good and true, and while they retain their
freedom of will, never fall away from their patient attendance on Him
who is truly good. It results that, if by your argument you do away
with the Spirit, the hosts of the angels are disbanded, the dominions
of archangels are destroyed, all is thrown into confusion, and their
life loses law, order, and distinctness. For how are angels to cry
"Glory to God in the highest" without being empowered by the
Spirit? For "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the
Holy Ghost, and no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus
accursed;" as might be said by wicked and hostile spirits, whose fall
establishes our statement of the freedom of the will of the invisible
powers; being, as they are, in a condition of equipoise between
virtue and vice, and on this account needing the succour of the
Spirit. I indeed maintain that even Gabriel in no other way
foretells events to come than by the foreknowledge of the Spirit, by
reason of the fact that one of the boons distributed by the Spirit is
prophecy. And whence did he who was ordained to announce the mysteries
of the vision to the Man of Desires derive the wisdom whereby he was
enabled to teach hidden things, if not from the Holy Spirit? The
revelation of mysteries is indeed the peculiar function of the Spirit,
as it is written, "God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit."
And how could "thrones, dominions, principalities and powers" live
their blessed life, did they not "behold the face of the Father which
is in heaven"? But to behold it is impossible without the Spirit!
Just as at night, if you withdraw the light from the house, the eyes
fall blind and their faculties become inactive, and the worth of
objects cannot be discerned, and gold is trodden on in ignorance as
though it were iron, so in the order of the intellectual world it is
impossible for the high life of Law to abide without the Spirit. For
it so to abide were as likely as that an army should maintain its
discipline in the absence of its commander, or a chorus its harmony
without the guidance of the coryphaeus. How could the Seraphim cry
"Holy, Holy, Holy," were they not taught by the Spirit how
often true religion requires them to lift their voice in this ascription
of glory? Do "all His angels" and "all His hosts" praise God?
It is through the co-operation of the Spirit. Do "thousand
thousand" of angels stand before Him, and "ten thousand times ten
thousand" ministering spirits? They are blamelessly doing their
proper work by the power of the Spirit. All the glorious and
unspeakable harmony of the highest heavens both in the service of God,
and in the mutual concord of the celestial powers, can therefore only
be preserved by the direction of the Spirit. Thus with those beings
who are not gradually perfected by increase and advance, but are
perfect from the moment of the creation, there is in creation the
presence of the Holy Spirit, who confers on them the grace that flows
from Him for the completion and perfection of their essence.
39. But when we speak of the dispensations made for man by our great
God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who will gainsay their having been
accomplished through the grace of the Spirit? Whether you wish to
examine ancient evidence;--the blessings of the partriarchs, the
succour given through the legislation, the types, the prophecies, the
valorous feats in war, the signs wrought through just men;--or on
the other hand the things done in the dispensation of the coming of our
Lord in the flesh;--all is through the Spirit. In the first place
He was made an unction, and being inseparably present was with the
very flesh of the Lord, according to that which is written, "Upon
whom thou shall see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, the
same is" "my beloved Son;" and "Jesus of Nazareth" whom "God
anointed with the Holy Ghost." After this every operation was
wrought with the co-operation of the Spirit. He was present when the
Lord was being tempted by the devil; for, it is said, "Jesus was
led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted." He was
inseparably with Him while working His wonderful works; for, it is
said, "If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils." And He did
not leave Him when He had risen from the dead; for when renewing
man, and, by breathing on the face of the disciples, restoring the
grace, that came of the inbreathing of God, which man had lost, what
did the Lord say.? "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins
ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever ye retain,
they are retained." And is it not plain and incontestable that the
ordering of the Church is effected through the Spirit? For He
gave, it is said, "in the church, first Apostles, secondarily
prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of
healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues," for this
order is ordained in accordance with the division of the girls that are
of the Spirit.
40. Moreover by any one who carefully uses his reason it will be
found that even at the moment of the expected appearance of the Lord
from heaven the Holy Spirit will not, as some suppose, have no
functions to discharge: on the contrary, even in the day of His
revelation, in which the blessed and only potentate will judge the
world in righteousness, the Holy Spirit will be present with Him.
For who is so ignorant of the good things prepared by God for them
that are worthy. as not to know that the crown of the righteous is the
grace of the Spirit, bestowed in more abundant and perfect measure in
that day, when spiritual glory shall be distributed to each in
proportion as he shall have nobly played the man? For among the
glories of the saints are "many mansions" in the Father's house,
that is differences of dignities: for as "star differeth from star in
glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead." They, then, that
were sealed by the Spirit unto the day of redemption, and preserve
pure anti undiminished the first fruits which they received of the
Spirit, are they that shall hear the words "well done thou good and
faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will
make thee ruler over many things." In like manner they which have
grieved the Holy Spirit by the wickedness of their ways, or have not
wrought for Him that gave to them, shall be deprived of what they have
received, their grace being transferred to others; or, according to
one of the evangelists, they shall even be wholly cut asunder, --the
cutting asunder meaning complete separation from the Spirit. The body
is not divided, part being delivered to chastisement, and part let
off; for when a whole has sinned it were like the old fables, and
unworthy of a righteous judge, for only the half to suffer
chastisement. Nor is the soul cut in two,--that soul the whole of
which possesses the sinful affection throughout, and works the
wickedness in co-operation with the body. The cutting asunder, as I
have observed, is the separation for aye of the soul from the Spirit.
For now, although the Spirit does not suffer admixture with the
unworthy, He nevertheless does seem in a manner to be present with
them that have once been sealed, awaiting the salvation which follows
on their conversion; but then He will be wholly cut off from the soul
that has defiled His grace. For this reason "In Hell there is none
that maketh confession; in death none that remembereth God," because
the succour of the Spirit is no longer present. How then is it
possible to conceive that the judgment is accomplished without the Holy
Spirit, wherein the word points out that He is Himself the prize of
the righteous, when instead of the earnest is given that which is
perfect, and the first condemnation of sinners, when they are deprived
of that which they seem to have? But the greatest proof of the
conjunction of the Spirit with the Father and the Son is that He is
said to have the same relation to God which the spirit in us has to
each of us. "For what man" it is said, "knoweth the things of a
man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of
God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God."
On this point I have said enough.
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