Chapter VII.

The Holy Spirit is no less the author of spiritual creation or regeneration than the Father and the Son. The excellence of that creation, and wherein it consists. How we are to understand holy Scripture, when it attributes a body or members to God.

62. So, then, the Father creates in good works, and the Son also, for it is written: “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them who believe on His Name; who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”304    S. John i. 12, 13.

63. In like manner the Lord Himself also testifies that we are born again of the Spirit according to grace, saying: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, because it is born of flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, because God is Spirit. Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must be born again. The Spirit breatheth305    It has been thought well in translating this verse to keep the words “spirit” and “breath” as suiting the argument of St. Ambrose. But there can be little doubt that the ordinary translation is the correct one. Bp. Westcott has the following note: “In Hebrew, Syriac, and Latin the words [for spirit and wind] are identical, and Wiclif and the Rhemish version keep “spirit” in both cases, after the Latin. But at present the retention of one word in both places could only create confusion, since the separation between the material emblem and the power which it was used to describe is complete. The use of the correlative verb (πνεῖ, ch. vi. 18; Rev. vii. 1; Matt. vii. 25, 27; Luke xii. 55; Acts xxvii. 40) and of the word sound (voice) is quite decisive for the literal use of the noun (πνεῦμα), and still at the same time the whole of the phraseology is inspired by the higher meaning. Perhaps also the unusual word (πνεῦμα, 1 Kings xviii. 45; xix. 11; 2 Kings iii. 17) is employed to suggest this. The comparison lies between the obvious physical properties of the wind and the mysterious action of that spiritual influence to which the name “spirit,” “wind,” was instinctively applied. The laws of both are practically unknown, both are unseen, the presence of both is revealed in their effects.”—Westcott on S. John iii. 8. where He willeth, and thou hearest His voice, but knowest not whence He cometh or whither He goeth, so is every one who is born of the Spirit.”

64. It is then clear that the Holy Spirit is also the Author of the grace of the Spirit, since we are created according to God, that we may be made the sons of God. So when He has taken us into His kingdom by the adoption of holy regeneration, do we deny Him that which is His? He has made us heirs of the new birth from above, do we claim the heritage and reject its Author? But the benefit cannot remain when its Author is shut out; the Author is not without the gift, nor the gift without the Author. If you claim the grace, believe the power; if you reject the power, do not ask for the grace. He who has denied the Spirit has at the same time denied the gift. For if the Author be of no account how can His gifts be precious? Why do we grudge the gifts we ourselves receive, diminish our hopes, repudiate our dignity, and deny our Comforter?

65. But we cannot deny Him. Far be it from us to deny that which is so great, since the Apostle says: “But ye brethren, like Isaac, are the children of promise, but as then, he that is born after the flesh persecutes him that is after the Spirit.”306    Gal. iv. 28, 29. Again certainly is understood from what has gone before, is born after the Spirit. He then who is born after the Spirit is born after God. Now we are born again when we are renewed in our inward affections and lay aside the oldness of the outer man. And so the Apostle says again: “But be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man which is created according to God in truth and righteousness and holiness.”307    Eph. iv. 23, 24. Let them hear how the Scripture has signified the unity of the divine operation. He who is renewed in the spirit of his mind has put on the new man, which is created according to God.

66. That more excellent regeneration is then the work of the Holy Spirit; and the Spirit is the Author of that new man which is created after the image of God, which no one will doubt to be better than this outer man of ours. Since the Apostle has pointed out that the one is heavenly, the other earthly, when he says: “As is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly.”308    1 Cor. xv. 48.

67. Since, then, the grace of the Spirit makes that to be heavenly which it can create earthy, we ought to observe by reason though we be without instances. For in a certain place holy Job says: “As the Lord liveth, Who thus judgeth me, and the Almighty, Who hath brought my soul to bitterness (for the Spirit of God which is in my nostrils).”309    Job xxvii. 2, 3. He certainly did not here signify by His Spirit the vital breath and bodily breathing passages, but signifies the nostrils of the inner man within him, wherewith he gathered in the fragrance of eternal life, and drew in the grace of the heavenly ointment as with a kind of twofold sense.

68. For there are spiritual nostrils, as we read, which the spouse of the Word has, to whom it is said: “And the smell of thy nostrils;”310    Cant. vii. 8. and in another place: “The Lord smelled a smell of sweetness.”311    Gen. viii. 21. There are, then, as it were, inward members of a man, whose hands are considered to be in action, his ears in hearing, his feet in a kind of progress in a good work. And so from what is done we gather as it were figures of the members, for it is not suitable for us to imagine anything in the inner man after a fleshly manner.

69. And there are some who suppose that God is fashioned after a bodily manner, when they read of His hand or finger, and they do not observe that these things are written not because of any fashion of a body, since in the Godhead are neither members nor parts, but are expressions of the oneness of the Godhead, that we may believe that it is impossible for either the Son or the Holy Spirit to be separated from God the Father; since the fulness of the Godhead dwells as it were bodily in the substance of the Trinity. For this reason, then, is the Son also called the Right Hand of the Father, as we read: “The Right Hand of the Lord hath done mighty things, the Right Hand of the Lord hath exalted me.”312    Ps. cxviii. [cxvii.] 16.

CAPUT VII.

Creationis spiritalis seu regenerationis non minus auctorem Spiritum esse, quam Patrem ac Filium. In quo consistat illa creatio, ejusque praestantia: et quomodo quod membra et corpus Deo tribuere videntur sacri codices, debeat intelligi?

62. [Alias cap. IX.] Ergo creat Pater in operibus bonis: creat et Filius; quia scriptum est: Quotquot autem eum receperunt, dedit eis potestatem filios Dei fieri, his qui credunt in nomine ejus: qui non ex sanguinibus, neque ex voluntate carnis, neque ex voluntate 0756Bviri, sed ex Deo nati sunt (Joan. I, 12, 13).

646 63. Similiter ex Spiritu secundum gratiam nos renasci Dominus ipse testatur, dicens: Quod natum est ex carne, caro est; quia de carne natum est: et quod natum est de spiritu, spiritus est; quia Deus spiritus est. Noli mirari quia dixi tibi: Oportet vos nasci denuo. Spiritus ubi vult spirat, et vocem ejus audis: sed nescis unde veniat, aut quo vadat; sic est omnis qui natus est de Spiritu (Joan. III, 6 et seq.).

64. Claret igitur spiritalis quoque generationis auctorem esse Spiritum sanctum; quia secundum Deum creamur, ut filii Dei simus. Ergo cum ille nos in regnum suum per adoptionem sacrae regenerationis assumpserit, nos ei quod suum est, denegamus? Ille nos supernae regenerationis fecit haeredes, nos 0756C haereditatem vindicamus, refutamus auctorem? Sed non potest manere beneficium, cum auctor excluditur; nec auctor sine munere, nec sine auctore munus. Si vindicas gratiam, crede potentiam: si refutas potentiam, gratiam ne requiras. Qui Spiritum negavit, statim negavit et donum. Nam si auctor vilis, quomodo dona pretiosa? Cur nostris ipsi muneribus invidemus, spem imminuimus, dignitatem repudiamus, consolatorem negamus?

65. Sed illum negare non possumus. Absit enim ut negemus quod maximum est, cum Apostolus dicat: Vos autem, fratres, secundum Isaac promissionis filii estis: sed sicut tunc qui secundum carnem natus est, persequebatur eum qui secundum Spiritum (Galat. IV, 28, 29). Iterum utique subauditur de 0756D superioribus, qui secundum Spiritum natus est. Qui ergo secundum Spiritum nascitur, secundum Deum nascitur. Renascimur autem, quando in interiore renovamur affectu, et exterioris hominis vetustatem deponimus. Et ideo ait iterum Apostolus: Renovamini autem Spiritu mentis vestrae, et induite novum hominem, qui secundum Deum creatus est in veritate, et justitia, et sanctitate (Ephes. IV, 23, 24). Audiant quemadmodum unitatem divinae operationis 0757A Scriptura signaverit. Qui renovatur Spiritu mentis, induit novum hominem, qui secundum Deum creatus est.

66. Sancti igitur Spiritus opus est regeneratio ista praestantior; et novi hujus hominis, qui creatur ad imaginem Dei, auctor est Spiritus: quem utique meliorem hoc exteriore esse nostro homine nemo dubitaverit. Siquidem coelestem alterum, terrenum alterum Apostolus significavit dicens: Qualis coelestis, tales et coelestes (I Cor. XV, 48).

67. Ergo cum coelestem faciat gratia spiritalis, quod terrenum creare possit, etiam sensu debemus advertere, licet careamus exemplis. Dicit enim alibi sanctus Job: Vivit Dominus, qui sic me judicat; et omnipotens, qui ad amaritudinem perduxit animam 0757Bmeam: Spiritus autem divinus, qui est in naribus meis (Job XXVII, 2, 3). Non utique spiritum hic auram vitalem hanc et spiramentum corporeum designavit, sed nares hic interioris sui hominis significat, quibus vitae odorem carpebat aeternae, et gratiam coelestis unguenti 647 geminis quibusdam sensibus hauriebat.

68. Sunt enim nares spiritales, ut legimus, quas habet Sponsa Verbi, cui dicitur: Et odor naris tuae (Cant. VII, 8); et alibi: Odoratus est Dominus odorem suavitatis (Gen. VIII, 21). Sunt ergo quaedam interioris membra hominis, cujus manus in actu, aures in auditu, pedes in processu quodam boni operis aestimantur. Itaque ex officiis, veluti quasdam colligimus membrorum figuras; neque enim 0757C in interiore homine secundum carnalia aliquid nos convenit opinari.

69. [Alias cap. X.] Et sunt quidam qui corporaliter Deum putant esse formatum, cum legunt aut manum ejus, aut digitum: nec advertunt quod haec non propter formam scripta sint corporis, quia in divinitate nec membra, nec partes sunt: sed propter unitatem divinitatis expressa, ut credamus quia impossibile est a Patre Deo vel Filium, vel Spiritum sanctum separari; cum plenitudo divinitatis velut corporaliter habitet in substantia Trinitatis. Ideo igitur et Filius Patris dextera nuncupatur, sicut lectum est: Dextera Domini fecit virtutem, dextera Domini exaltavit me (Ps. CXVII, 16).