Chapter III.

As to know the Father and the Son is life, so is it life to know the Holy Spirit; and therefore in the Godhead He is not to be separated from the Father.

26. Let them say, then, wherein they think that there is an unlikeness in the divine operation. Since as to know the Father and the Son is life, as the Lord Himself declared, saying: “This is life eternal to know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent,”260    S. John xvii. 3. so, too, to know the Holy Spirit is life. For the Lord said: “If ye love Me, keep My commandments, and I will ask the Father and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He is with you, and in you.”261    S. John xvii. 14, 15.

27. So, then, the world had not eternal life, because it had not received the Spirit; for where the Spirit is, there is eternal life; for the Spirit Himself it is Who effects eternal life. Wherefore I wonder why the Arians stir the question as to the only true God. For as it is eternal life to know the only true God, so, too, is it eternal life to know Jesus Christ; so, again, it is eternal life to know the Holy Spirit, Whom, as also the Father, the world does not see, and, as also the Son, does not know. But he who is not of this world has eternal life, and the Spirit, Who is the Light of eternal life, remains with him for ever.

28. If the knowledge of the only true God confers the same benefit as the knowledge of the Son and of the Spirit, why do you sever the Son and the Spirit from the honour of the true God, when you do not sever Him from conferring the benefit? For of necessity you must either believe that this is the greatest gift of the only true Godhead, and will confess the only true Godhead as of the Father, so also of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; or if you say that he, too, can give life eternal who is not true God, it will happen that you derogate rather from the Father, Whose work you do not consider to be the chief work of the only true Godhead, but one to be compared to the work of a creature.

CAPUT III.

Sicut vita est cognoscere Patrem et Filium, ita vitam esse cognoscere Spiritum sanctum; proindeque a 0748B Patris divinitate non separandum.

26. Dicant enim in quo dissimilitudinem divini operis arbitrentur. Quandoquidem sicut vita est cognoscere Patrem et Filium, quemadmodum ipse Dominus declaravit dicens: 639 Haec est autem vita aeterna, ut cognoscant te solum verum Deum, et quem misisti Jesum Christum (Joan. XVII, 3); ita etiam vita est cognoscere Spiritum sanctum. Dicit enim Dominus: Si diligitis me, mandata mea servate: et ego rogabo Patrem, et alium paraclitum dabit vobis, ut maneat vobiscum in aeternum, Spiritum veritatis, quem mundus non potest accipere; quia non videt eum, nec cognoscit eum: vos autem scitis eum, quia apud vos manet, et in vobis est (Ibid. XIV, 15 et seq.).

27. Ergo mundus non habebat vitam aeternam, 0748C quia non acceperat Spiritum: ubi autem Spiritus, ibi vita aeterna: ipse est enim Spiritus vitae operator aeternae. Unde miror, cur de solo et vero Deo Ariani moveant quaestionem. Sicut enim vita aeterna est cognoscere solum et verum Deum, ita vita aeterna est cognoscere Jesum Christum, ita vita aeterna est cognoscere Spiritum sanctum: quem sic non videt mundus, quemadmodum Patrem: sic non cognoscit, quemadmodum Filium. Qui autem de hoc mundo non est, habet vitam aeternam, et cum ipso manet Spiritus in aeternum, qui est lumen vitae aeternae.

28. Ergo si hoc confert cognitio solius veri Dei, quod confert Filii Spiritusque cognitio, cur Filium et Spiritum a veri Dei honore secernis, cum a magnitudine beneficii non secernas? Aut enim credas necesse 0748D est solius verae divinitatis esse hoc maximum munus, et solam et veram divinitatem sicut et Patris, ita et Filii et Spiritus confitebere: aut si dixeris quia vitam aeternam potest et is conferre, qui verus 0749A Deus non sit; incides ut Patri magis derogare videaris, cujus opus non putes solius verae divinitatis esse praecipuum, sed creaturae operibus conferendum.