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You say then in another discussion, nay rather in another blasphemy of
yours, "and He separated the Spirit from the Divine nature Who created
His humanity. For Scripture says that that which was born of Mary is of the
Holy Ghost. Who also filled with righteousness (justitia) that which
was created: for it says 'He appeared in the flesh, was justified in the
Spirit.' Again: Who made Him also to be feared by the devils: 'For I,'
He says, 'by the Spirit of God cast out devils.' Who also made His
flesh a temple. 'For I saw His spirit descending like a dove and abiding
upon Him.' Again: Who granted to Him His ascension into Heaven. For it
says, "Giving a commandment to the apostles whom He had chosen, by the Holy
Ghost He was taken up." Finally that it was He who granted such glory
to Christ." The whole of your blasphemy then consists in this: that Christ
had nothing of Himself: nor did He, a mere man, as you say, receive
anything from the Word, i.e., the Son of God; but everything in Him was the
gift of the Spirit. If then we can show that all that which you refer to
the Spirit, is His own, what remains but that we prove that He whom you
therefore would have taken to be a man, because as you say everything which
He has is another's, is therefore God, because everything which He has is
His own? And indeed we will prove this not only by discussion and argument,
but by the voice of Divinity Itself: for nothing testifies of God better
than things divine. And because nothing knows itself better than the very
glory of God, we believe nothing on the subject of God with greater right
than those writings in which God Himself is His own witness. First then, as
to this that you say that the Holy Spirit created His humanity; we might
take it simply, if we could acknowledge that you had not brought it forward
in the interests of unbelief. For neither do we deny that the flesh of the
Lord was conceived by the Holy Ghost: but we assert that the body was
conceived by the co-operation of the Holy Ghost in such a way that we can
say that His Humanity was created for Himself by the Son of God, as the
Holy Spirit Itself says in holy Scripture, testifying that "Wisdom hath
builded for Itself a house." You see then that that which was conceived
by the Holy Ghost was built and perfected by the Son of God: not that the
work of the Son of God is one thing, and the work of the Holy Ghost
another: but that through the unity of the Godhead and glory the operation
of the Spirit is the building of the Son of God; and the building of the
Son of God is the co-operation of the Holy Ghost. And so we read not only
that the Holy Ghost came upon the Virgin, but also that the power of the
Most High overshadowed the Virgin; that since Wisdom Itself is the fulness
of the Godhead, no one might doubt that when Wisdom built Itself a house
all the fulness of the Godhead was present. But the wretched hardness of
your blasphemy, while it tries to sever Christ from the Son of God, fails
to see that it is entirely severing the nature of the Godhead from Itself.
Unless perhaps you believe that the house is therefore built for Him by the
Holy Ghost because He Himself was insufficient and incapable of building
for Himself an house. But it is as absurd as it is wild, to believe that
He, whom we believe to have created the whole universe of things heavenly
and earthly by His will, was unable to build for Himself a body: especially
as the power of the Holy Ghost is His power, and the Divinity and Glory of
the Trinity are so united and inseparable, that we cannot think of anything
at all in One Person of the Trinity, which can be separated from the
fulness of the Godhead. Therefore when this is laid down and grasped; viz.,
that according to the faith of holy Scripture, when the Holy Ghost came
upon (the Virgin) and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, Wisdom
builded Itself an house; the rest of the slanders of your blasphemy come to
nothing. For neither is it doubtful that He made all things by Himself and
in Himself, in whose name and faith, the faith even of believers can do
anything. For neither did He need the aid of another, as neither have they
needed it, who have trusted in His power. And so as for your assertions
that He was justified by the Spirit, and that the Spirit made Him to be
feared by the devils, and that His flesh became the temple of the Holy
Ghost, and that He was taken up by the Spirit into heaven, they are all
blasphemous and wild: not because we are to believe that in all these
things which He Himself did, the unity and cooperation of the Spirit was
wanting--since the Godhead is never wanting to Itself, and the [power of
the Trinity was ever present in the Saviour's works--but because you will
have it that the Holy Ghost gave assistance to the Lord Jesus Christ as if
He had been feeble and powerless; and that He granted those things to Him,
which He was unable to procure for Himself. Learn then from sacred
witnesses to believe God, and not to mingle falsehood with truth: for the
subject does not admit it, and common sense abhors the idea of mingling the
notions of the spirit of the devil with the witnesses that are Divine.
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