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61. Now, short and simple as this utter-ante is, it appears to
me, as I consider it that its meanings are many and various. For of
the senses in which "in" is used, we find that all help our
conceptions of the Spirit. Form is said to be in Matter; Power to
be in what is capable of it; Habit to be in him who is affected by
it; and so on. Therefore, inasmuch as the Holy Spirit perfects
rational beings, completing their excellence, He is analogous to
Form. For he, who no longer "lives after the flesh," but, being
"led by the Spirit of God," is called a Son of God, being
"conformed to tile image of the Son of God," is described as
spiritual. And as is the power of seeing in the healthy eye, so is
the operation of the Spirit in the purified soul. Wherefore also
Paul prays for the Ephesians that they may have their "eyes
enlightened" by "the Spirit of wisdom." And as the art in him who
has acquired it, so is the grace of the Spirit in the recipient ever
present, though not continuously in operation. For as the art is
potentially in the artist, but only in operation when he is working in
accordance with it, so also the Spirit is ever present with those that
are worthy, but works, as need requires, in prophecies, or in
healings, or in some other actual carrying into effect of His
potential action. Furthermore as in our bodies is health, or heat,
or, generally, their variable conditions, so, very frequently is the
Spirit in the soul; since He does not abide with those who, on
account of the instability of their will, easily reject the grace which
they have received. An instance of this is seen in Saul, and the
seventy elders of the children of Israel, except Eldad and Medad,
with whom alone the Spirit appears to have remained, and, generally,
any one similar to these in character. And like reason in the soul,
which is at one time the thought in the heart, and at another speech
uttered by the tongue, so is the Holy Spirit, as when He "beareth
witness with our spirit," and when lie "cries in our hearts, Abba,
Father," or when He speaks on our behalf, as it is said, "It is
not ye that speak, but the Spirit of our Father which speaketh in
you." Again, the Spirit is conceived of, in relation to the
distribution of gifts, as a whole in parts. For we all are "members
one of another, having girls differing according to the grace that is
given us." Wherefore "the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no
need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of
you," but all together complete the Body of Christ in the Unity of
the Spirit, and render to one another the needful aid that comes of
the gifts. "But God hath set the members in the body, every one of
them, as it hath pleased Him." But "the members have the same care
for one another," according to the inborn spiritual communion of their
sympathy. Wherefore, "whether one member suffer, all the members
suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice
with it." And as parts in the whole so are we individually in the
Spirit, because we all "were baptized in one body into one spirit."
62. It is an extraordinary statement, but it is none the less
true, that the Spirit is frequently spoken of as the place of them
that are being sanctified, and it will become evident that even by this
figure the Spirit, so far from being degraded, is rather glorified.
For words applicable to the body are, for the sake of clearness,
frequently transferred in scripture to spiritual conceptions.
Accordingly we find the Psalmist, even in reference to God, saying
"Be Thou to me a champion God and a strong place to save me" and
concerning the Spirit "behold there is place by me, and stand upon a
rock." Plainly meaning the place or contemplation in the Spirit
wherein, after Moses had entered thither, he was able to see God
intelligibly manifested to him. This is the special and peculiar place
of true worship; for it is said "Take heed to thyself that thou offer
not thy burnt offerings in every place . . . but in the place the
Lord thy God shall choose." Now what is a spiritual burnt
offering? "The sacrifice of praise." And in what place do we offer
it? In the Holy Spirit. Where have we learnt this? From the
Lord himself in the words "The true worshippers shall worship the
Father in spirit and in truth." This place Jacob saw and said
"The Lord is in this place." It follows that the Spirit is verily
the place of the saints and the saint is the proper place for the
Spirit, offering himself as he does for the indwelling of God, and
called God's Temple. So Paul speaks in Christ, saying "In the
sight of God we speak in Christ," and Christ in Paul, as he
himself says "Since ye seek a proof ne Christ speaking in me." So
also in the Spirit he speaketh mysteries, and again the Spirit speaks
in him.
63. In relation to the originate, then, the Spirit is said to be
in them "in divers portions and in divers manners," while in relation
to the Father and the Son it is more consistent with true religion to
assert Him not to be in but to be with. For the grace flowing from
Him when He dwells in those that are worthy, and carries out His own
operations, is well described as existing in those that are able to
receive Him. On the other hand His essential existence before the
ages, and His ceaseless abiding with Son and Father, cannot be
contemplated without requiring titles expressive of eternal
conjunction. For absolute and real co-existence is predicated in the
case of things which are mutually inseparable. We say, for instance,
that beat exists in the hot iron, but in the case of the actual fire it
co-exists; and, similarly, that health exists in the body, but that
life co-exists with the soul. It follows that wherever the fellowship
is intimate, congenital, and inseparable, the word with is more
expressive, suggesting, as it does, the idea of inseparable
fellowship. Where on the other hand the grace flowing from the Spirit
naturally comes and goes, it is properly and truly said to exist in,
even if on account of the firmness of the recipients' disposition to
good the grace abides with them continually. Thus whenever we have in
mind the Spirit's proper rank, we contemplate Him as being with the
Father and the Son, but when we think of the grace that flows from
Him operating on those who participate in it, we say that the Spirit
is in us. And the doxology which we offer "in the Spirit" is not an
acknowledgment of His rank; it is rather a confession of our own
weakness, while we shew that we are not sufficient to glorify Him of
ourselves, but our sufficiency is in the Holy Spirit. Enabled in,
[or by,] Him we render thanks to our God for the benefits we have
received, according to the measure of our purification from evil, as
we receive one a larger and another a smaller share of the aid of the
Spirit, that we may offer "the sacrifice of praise to God."
According to one use, then, it is thus that we offer our
thanksgiving, as the true religion requires, in the Spirit; although
it is not quite unobjectionable that any one should testify of himself
"the Spirit of God is in me, and I offer glory after being made
wise through the grace that flows from Him." For to a Paul it is
becoming to say "I think also that I have the Spirit of God," and
again, "that good thing which was committed to thee keep by the Holy
Ghost which dwelleth in us." And of Daniel it is fitting to say
that "the Holy Spirit of God is in him," and similarly of men who
are like these in virtue.
64. Another sense may however be given to the phrase, that just as
the Father is seen in the Son, so is the Son in the Spirit. The
"worship in the Spirit" suggests the idea of the operation of our
intelligence being carried on in the light, as may be learned from the
words spoken to the woman of Samaria. Deceived as she was by the
customs of her country into the belief that worship was local, our
Lord, with the object of giving her better instruction, said that
worship ought to be offered "in Spirit and in Truth," plainly
meaning by the Truth, Himself. As then we speak of the worship
offered in the Image of God the Father as worship in the Son, so
too do we speak of worship in the Spirit as shewing in Himself the
Godhead of the Lord. Wherefore even in our worship the Holy Spirit
is inseparable from the Father and the Son. If you remain outside
the Spirit you will not be able even to worship at all; and on your
becoming in Him you will in no wise be able to dissever Him from
God;--any more than you will divorce light from visible objects.
For it is impossible to behold the Image of the invisible God except
by the enlightenment of the Spirit, and impracticable for him to fix
his gaze on the Image to dissever the light from the Image, because
the cause of vision is of necessity seen at the same time as the visible
objects. Thus fitly and consistently do we behold the "Brightness of
the glory" of God by means of the illumination of the Spirit, and by
means of the "Express Image" we are led up to Him of whom He is
the Express Image and Seal, graven to the like.
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