Chapter XI.

The objection has been made, that the words of St. John, “The Spirit is God,” are to be referred to God the Father; since Christ afterwards declares that God is to be worshipped in Spirit and in truth. The answer is, first, that by the word Spirit is sometimes meant spiritual grace; next, it is shown that, if they insist that the Person of the Holy Spirit is signified by the words “in Spirit,” and therefore deny that adoration is due to Him, the argument tells equally against the Son; and since numberless passages prove that He is to be worshipped, we understand from this that the same rule is to be laid down as regards the Spirit. Why are we commanded to fall down before His footstool? Because by this is signified the Lord’s Body, and as the Spirit was the Maker of this, it follows that He is to be worshipped, and yet it does not accordingly follow that Mary is to be worshipped. Therefore the worship of the Spirit is not done away with, but His union with the Father is expressed, when it is said that the Father is to be worshipped in Spirit, and this point is supported by similar expressions.

69. But perhaps reference may be made to the fact that in a later passage of the same book, the Lord again said that God is Spirit, but spoke of God the Father. For you have this passage in the Gospel: “The hour now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for such also doth the Father seek. God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth.”538    S. John iv. 23, 24. By this passage you wish not only to deny the divinity of the Holy Spirit, but also, from God being worshipped in Spirit, deduce a subjection of the Spirit.

70. To which point I will briefly answer that Spirit is often put for the grace of the Spirit, as the Apostle also said: “For the Spirit Himself intercedeth for us with groanings which cannot be uttered;”539    Rom. viii. 26. that is, the grace of the Spirit, unless perchance you have been able to hear the groanings of the Holy Spirit. Therefore here too God is worshipped, not in the wickedness of the heart, but in the grace of the Spirit. “For into a malicious soul wisdom does not enter,”540    Wisd. i. 4. because “no one can call Jesus Lord but in the Holy Spirit.”541    1 Cor. xii. 3. And immediately he adds: “Now there are diversities of gifts.”542    1 Cor. xii. 4.

71. Now this cannot pertain to the fulness, nor to the dividing of the Spirit; for neither does the mind of man grasp His fulness, nor is He divided into any portions of Himself; but He pours into [the soul] the gift of spiritual grace, in which God is worshipped as He is also worshipped in truth, for no one worships Him except he who drinks in the truth of His Godhead with pious affection. And he certainly does not apprehend Christ as it were personally, nor the Holy Spirit personally.

72. Or if you think that this is said as it were personally of Christ and of the Spirit, then God is worshipped in truth in like manner as He is worshipped in Spirit. There is therefore either a like subjection, which God forbid that you should believe, and the Son is not worshipped; or, which is true, there is a like grace of Unity, and the Spirit is worshipped.

73. Let us then here draw our inferences and put an end to the impious questionings of the Arians. For if they say that the Spirit is therefore not to be worshipped because God is worshipped in Spirit, let them then say that the Truth is not to be worshipped, because God is worshipped in truth. For although there be many truths, since it is written: “Truths are minished from the sons of men;”543    Ps. xii. [xi.] 1. yet they are given by the Divine Truth, which is Christ, Who says: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”544    S. John xiv. 6. If therefore they understand the truth in this passage from custom, let them also understand the grace of the Spirit, and there is no stumbling; or if they receive Christ as the Truth, let them deny that He is to be worshipped.

74. But they are refuted by the acts of the pious, and by the course of the Scriptures. For Mary worshipped Christ, and therefore is appointed to be the messenger of the Resurrection to the apostles,545    S. John xx. 17, 18. loosening the hereditary bond, and the huge offence of womankind. For this the Lord wrought mystically, “that where sin had exceedingly abounded, grace might more exceedingly abound.”546    Rom. v. 20. And rightly is a woman appointed [as messenger] to men; that she who first had brought the message of sin to man should first bring the message of the grace of the Lord.

75. And the apostles worshipped; and therefore they who bore the testimony of the faith received authority as to the faith. And the angels worshipped, of whom it is written: “And let all His angels worship Him.”547    Heb. i. 6.

76. But they worship not only His Godhead but also His Footstool, as it is written: “And worship His footstool, for it is holy.”548    Ps. xcix. [xcviii.] 5. Or if they deny that in Christ the mysteries also of His Incarnation are to be worshipped, in which we observe as it were certain express traces of His Godhead, and certain ways of the Heavenly Word; let them read that even the apostles worshipped Him when He rose again in the glory of His Flesh.549    S. Matt. xxviii. 17.

77. Therefore if it do not at all detract from Christ, that God is worshipped in Christ, for Christ too is worshipped;550    St. Ambrose here argues against Apollinarianism, who separated the two natures in Christ and taught that He should not be adored except in His Godhead, giving to the orthodox the nickname of ἀνθρωπολάτραι. The Apollinarians held that Christ was Θεὸς σαρκοφόρος, as Nestorians made Him ἄνθρωπος Θεοφόρος, instead of the proper Θεάνθρωπος. Apollinaris said Christ is οὔτε ἄνθρωπος ἅπλος, οὔτε Θεὸς, ἀλλὰ Θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπου μίξις. He denied the complete human nature of our Lord, saying that the Logos supplied the place of the anima rationalis. This stunted humanity could not be accepted by the Church, as it would involve a merely partial redemption. Christ must be a perfect man, in order to be a perfect Redeemer.   The heresy was opposed by St. Athanasius, St. Basil, and others, condemned in synods at Alexandria 362, Rome 373 and probably 382, Antioch 378 or 379, and decisively at Constantinople in the second œcumenical council. See Dict. Chr. Biog.; Blunt, Dict. of Sects, etc.; Hefele on Council of Constantinople; St. Gregory of Nazianzus’ Letters on the Apollinarian controversy in this series, p. 437 ff. it certainly also detracts nothing from the Spirit that God is worshipped in the Spirit, for the Spirit also is worshipped, as the Apostle has said: “We serve the Spirit of God,”551    Phil. iii. 3. for he who serves worships also, as it is said in an earlier passage: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”552    Deut. vi. 13.

78. But lest any one should perchance seem to elude the instance we have adduced, let us consider in what manner that which the prophet says, “Worship His Footstool,” appears to refer to the mystery of the divine Incarnation, for we must not estimate the footstool from the custom of men. For neither has God a body, neither is He other than beyond measure, that we should think a footstool was laid down as a support for His feet. And we read that nothing besides God is to be worshipped, for it is written: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” How, then, should the prophet, brought up under the Law, and instructed in the Law, give a precept against the Law? The question, then, is not unimportant, and so let us more diligently consider what the footstool is. For we read elsewhere: “The heaven is My throne, and the earth the footstool of My feet.”553    Isa. lxvi. 1. But the earth is not to be worshipped by us, for it is a creature of God.

79. Let us, however, see whether the prophet does not say that that earth is to be worshipped which the Lord Jesus took upon Him in assuming flesh. And so, by footstool is understood earth, but by the earth the Flesh of Christ, which we this day also adore554    There can be no doubt that St. Ambrose held what is known as the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and is here asserting the custom of his day, viz., that Christ was worshipped as indivisibly God and Man in that Sacrament. Similar expressions are to be found in other Fathers, and in St. Ambrose elsewhere; e.g. De Fide, V. 10; De Mysteriis, §§ 52–54, 58. Bishop Andrewes, formerly of Winchester (ob. a.d. 1626), refers to St. Ambrose as follows: “Nos vero et in Mysteriis Carnem Christi adoramus cum Ambrosio, et non id, sed eum qui super altare colitur. Nec Carnem manducamus quin adoremus prius cum Augustino.…El Sacramentum tamen nulli adoremus.” Resp. ad Bellarmin, p. 195. in the mysteries, and which the apostles, as we said above, adored in the Lord Jesus; for Christ is not divided but is one; nor, when He is adored as the Son of God, is He denied to have been born of the Virgin. Since, then, the mystery of the Incarnation is to be adored, and the Incarnation is the work of the Spirit, as it is written, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee, and that Holy Thing Which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God,”555    S. Luke i. 35. without doubt the Holy Spirit also is to be adored, since He Who according to the flesh was born of the Holy Spirit is adored.

80. And let no one divert this to the Virgin Mary; Mary was the temple of God, not the God of the temple. And therefore He alone is to be worshipped Who was working in His temple.

81. It makes, then, nothing against our argument that God is worshipped in Spirit, for the Spirit also is worshipped. Although if we consider the words themselves, what else ought we to understand in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but the unity of the same power. For what is “must worship in Spirit and in truth”? If, however, you do not refer this to the grace of the Spirit, nor the true faith of conscience; but, as we said, personally (if indeed this word person is fit to express the Divine Majesty), you must take it of Christ and of the Spirit.

82. What means, then, the Father is worshipped in Christ, except that the Father is in Christ, and the Father speaks in Christ, and the Father abides in Christ. Not, indeed, as a body in a body, for God is not a body; nor as a confused mixture [confusus in confuso], but as the true in the true, God in God, Light in Light; as the eternal Father in the co-eternal Son. So not an ingrafting of a body is meant, but unity of power. Therefore, by unity of power, Christ is jointly worshipped in the Father when God the Father is worshipped in Christ. In like manner, then, by unity of the same power the Spirit is jointly worshipped in God, when God is worshipped in the Spirit.

83. Let us investigate the force of that word and expression more diligently, and deduce its proper meaning from other passages. “Thou hast,” it is said, “made them all in wisdom.”556    Ps. civ. [ciii.] 24. Do we here understand that Wisdom was without a share in the things that were made? But “all things were made by Him.”557    S. John i. 3. And David says: “By the Word of the Lord were the heavens established.”558    Ps. xxxiii. [xxxii.] 6. So, then, he himself who calls the Son of God the maker even of heavenly things, has also plainly said that all things were made in the Son, that in the renewal of His works He might by no means separate the Son from the Father, but unite Him to the Father.

84. Paul, too, says: “For in Him were all things created in the heavens and in the earth, visible and invisible.”559    Col. i. 16. Does he, then, when he says, “in Him,” deny that they were made through Him? Certainly he did not deny but affirmed it. And further he says in another place: “One Lord Jesus, through Whom are all things.”560    1 Cor. viii. 6. In saying, then, “through Him,” has he denied that all things were made in Him, through Whom he says that all things exist? These words, “in Him” and “with Him,” have this force, that by them is understood one and like in all respects, not contrary. Which he also made clear farther on, saying: “All things have been created through Him and in Him;”561    Col. i. 16. for, as we said above, Scripture witnesses that these three expressions, “with Him,” and “through Him,” and “in Him,” are equivalent in Christ.562    Bk. II. 8, 9. For you read that all things were made through Him and in Him.

85. Learn also that the Father was with Him, and He with the Father, when all things were being made. Wisdom says: “When He was preparing the heavens I was with Him, when He was making the fountains of waters.”563    Prov. viii. 27. And in the Old Testament the Father, by saying, “Let Us make,”564    Gen. i. 26. showed that the Son was to be worshipped with Himself as the Maker of all things. As, then, those things are said to have been created in the Son, of which the Son is received as the Creator; so, too, when God is said to be worshipped in truth by the proper meaning of the word itself often expressed after the same manner it ought to be understood, that the Son too is worshipped. So in like manner is the Spirit also worshipped because God is worshipped in Spirit. Therefore the Father is worshipped both with the Son and with the Spirit, because the Trinity is worshipped.

679 CAPUT XI.

Objiciebatur Joannis verba, nimirum, Spiritus est Deus, ad Deum Patrem referenda esse; quando postea Deum adorandum in Spiritu et veritate praedicit Christus. Respondetur primo voce spiritus interdum gratiam spiritalem significari: deinde si personam Spiritus sancti per voces in spiritu intelligendam 0792C velint, proptereaque ipsi deberi negent adorationem, ostenditur argumentum aeque pugnare in Filium: quem tamen cum adorandum innumera probent exempla, hinc de Spiritu quoque idem statuendum intelligitur. Quid adorari praecipitur scabellum pedum? Hoc designari Domini corpus, cujus cum auctor sit Spiritus, ipsum sequitur adorandum esse, nec tamen proinde Mariam adorandam. Non ergo abrogari Spiritus adorationem, sed ejus cum Patre conjunctionem exprimi, cum Pater in Spiritu dicitur adorandus: quod similibus locutionibus confirmatur.

69. [Alias cap. XII.] Sed fortasse referatur quia in posterioribus istius ipsius libri iterum Dominus Deum Spiritum dixit, sed de Patre Deo sensit. Sic 0792D enim habes in Evangelio: Nunc est quando veri adoratores adorabunt Patrem in Spiritu et veritate. Nam et Pater tales quaerit, qui adorent eum. Spiritus est 0793A Deus, et eos qui adorant eum, in Spiritu et veritate oportet adorare (Joan. IV, 23, 24). Non solum enim hoc exemplo divinitatem sanciti Spiritus vultis negare; sed etiam in Spiritu adorari Deum tamquam ad subjectionem Spiritus derivatis.

70. Cui loco respondebo breviter, quia spiritus plerumque ponitur pro gratia spiritali, sicut et Apostolus dixit: Quia ipse spiritus postulat pro nobis gemitibus inenarrabilibus (Rom. VIII, 26), hoc est, gratia spiritalis; nisi forte gemitus vos sancti Spiritus audire potuistis. Ergo et hic adoratur Deus, non in malitia cordis, sed in gratia spiritali. In animam enim malevolamnon intrat sapientia (Sap. I, 4); quia nemo potest dicere Dominum Jesum, nisi in Spiritu sancto (I Cor. XII, 3). Statimque subdidit: Divisiones 0793B vero gratiarum sunt (Ibid., 4).

71. Non igitur hoc ad plenitudinem, nec ad portionem Spiritus potest pertinere, quia neque humana mens ejus plenitudinem capit, neque in ullas sui dividitur sectiones: sed donum gratiae spiritalis infundit, in quo adoratur Deus, sicut adoratur etiam in veritate; non enim adorat, nisi qui veritatem divinitatis ejus pio haurit affectu. Nec utique velut personaliter Christum, aut sanctum personaliter Spiritum comprehendit.

72. Aut si putas quod velut personaliter dictum de Spiritu videatur et de Christo: ergo Deus similiter adoratur in veritate, sicut adoratur in Spiritu. Aut similis igitur subjectio, quod absit ut credas; et nec Filius adoratur: aut, quod verum est, similis 0793C unitatis est gratia, et Spiritus adoratur.

680 73. Colligamus hic ergo et concludamus Arianorum impias quaestiones. Si enim ideo negant adorandum Spiritum, quia Deus adoratur in Spiritu; negent ergo adorandam veritatem, quia Deus adoratur in veritate. Nam licet plurimae veritates sint, quia scriptum est: Diminutae sunt veritates a filiis hominum (Psal. XI, 1); donatae tamen sunt a veritate divina, quae est Christus qui ait: Ego sum via, veritas et vita (Joan. XIV, 6). Ergo si hoc loco veritatem ex usu intelligunt, intelligant etiam gratiam spiritalem, et nihil est offensionis: aut si veritatem Christum accipiunt, adorandum negent.

74. Sed refelluntur factis piorum, serie Scripturarum. Adoravit enim Christum Maria, et ideo praenuntia 0793D resurrectionis ad apostolos destinatur, solvens haereditarium nexum, et feminei generis immane delictum. Hoc enim operatus est in mysterio 0794A Dominus; ut ubi superabundaverat peccatum, superabundaret et gratia (Rom. V, 20). Meritoque ad viros femina destinatur; ut quae culpam viro prima nuntiaverat, prima Domini gratiam nuntiaret.

75. Adoraverunt et apostoli (Matth. XXVIII, 17); et ideo quia detulerunt fidei testimonium, acceperunt fidei magisterium. Adoraverunt et angeli, de quibus scriptum est: Et adorent eum omnes angeli ejus (Hebr. I, 6).

76. Adorant autem non solum divinitatem ejus, sed etiam scabellum pedum ejus, sicut scriptum est: Et adorate scabellum pedum ejus; quoniam sanctum est (Psal. XCVIII, 5). Aut si negant quia in Christo etiam incarnationis adoranda mysteria sint, in quibus velut vestigia quaedam divinitatis expressa, et vias 0794B quasdam Verbi coelestis advertimus; legant quia et apostoli adorabant eum in carnis gloria resurgentem (Matth. XXVIII, 17).

77. Ergo si nihil derogat Christo, quod Deus adoratur in Christo; quia adoratur et Christus: nihil utique derogat etiam Spiritui, quia Deus adoratur in Spiritu; quia adoratur et Spiritus, sicut Apostolus dixit: Spiritui Dei servimus (Philip. III, 3). Qui enim servit, et adorat, sicut supra dictum est: Dominum Deum tuum adorabis, et illi soli servies (Deut. VI, 13).

78. Sed ne forte propositum aliquis praeterfugere videatur exemplum, qua ratione ad incarnationis Dominicae sacramentum spectare videatur, quod ait Propheta: Adorate scabellum pedum ejus (Ps. XCVIII, 0794C 5), consideremus; non enim ex usu hominum aestimare debemus scabellum. Nam neque corporalis Deus, aut non immensus; ut tamquam fulcrum pedibus ejus scabellum subjectum putemus. Neque adorandum quidquam praeter Deum legimus; quia scriptum est: Dominum Deum tuum adorabis, et ipsi soli servies (Deut. VI, 13). Quomodo ergo adversus Legem Propheta praeciperet, sub Lege nutritus, et eruditus in Lege. Non mediocris igitur quaestio, et ideo diligentius consideremus quid sit scabellum. Legimus enim alibi: Coelum mihi thronus, terra autem scabellum pedum meorum (Esa. LXVI, 1). Sed nec terra adoranda 681 est nobis, quia creatura est Dei.

79. Videamus tamen ne terram illam dicat adorandam 0794D Propheta, quam Dominus Jesus in carnis assumptione suscepit. Itaque per scabellum terra intelligitur: per terram autem caro Christi, quam 0795A hodieque in mysteriis adoramus, et quam apostoli in Domino Jesu, ut supra diximus, adorarunt; neque enim divisus est Christus, sed unus (I Cor. I, 13): neque cum adoratur tamquam Dei Filius, natus ex Virgine denegatur. Cum igitur incarnationis adorandum sit sacramentum, incarnatio autem opus Spiritus, sicut scriptum est: Spiritus sanctus superveniet in te, et virtus Altissimi obumbrabit tibi; et quod nascetur ex te sanctum, vocabitur Filius Dei (Luc. I, 35): haud dubie etiam sanctus Spiritus adorandus est; quando adoratur ille, qui secundum carnem natus ex Spiritu sancto est.

80. Ac ne quis hoc derivet ad Mariam virginem: Maria erat templum Dei, non Deus templi. Et ideo ille solus adorandus, qui operabatur in templo.

0795B 81. Nihil ergo officit, quod Deus adoratur in Spiritu; quia et Spiritus adoratur. Quamquam si ipsa verba consideremus, quid aliud in Patre et Filio et Spiritu sancto, nisi ejusdem potestatis unitatem intelligere debemus? Quid est enim: In Spiritu et veritate adorare oportet (Joan. IV, 24)? si tamen hoc non ad gratiam spiritalem referas, nec ad veram conscientiae fidem: sed, ut diximus, personaliter (si tamen dignum hoc verbum est majestatis expressione divinae) de Christo accipias et de Spiritu.

82. Quid est ergo adoratur in Christo Pater, nisi quia est in Christo Pater, et loquitur in Christo Pater, et manet in Christo Pater? Non utique quasi corpus in corpore; non enim Deus corpus: nec quasi confusus in confuso; sed quasi verus in vero, Deus 0795C in Deo, lumen in lumine, quasi Pater sempiternus 0796A in Filio coaeterno. Non ergo insertio corporis intelligitur, sed unitas potestatis. Ergo per unitatem potestatis coadoratur in Patre Christus, cum Deus Pater 682 adoratur in Christo. Similiter itaque per unitatem potestatis ejusdem coadoratur in Deo Spiritus, dum Deus adoratur in Spiritu.

83. Adhuc verbi istius vim atque sermonis diligentius pertractemus, et proprietatem ejus ex aliis colligamus: Omnia, inquit, in Sapientia fecisti (Ps. CIII, 24). Quid hic igitur intelligimus exsortem factorum esse Sapientiam? Sed omnia per ipsum facta sunt (Joan. I, 3). Et David ait: Verbo Domini coeli firmati sunt (Psal. XXXII, 6) Ergo ipse qui Dei Filium etiam coelestium dicit auctorem, ita utique dixit in Filio facta omnia, ut in operum instauratione 0796B Filium a Patre minime separaret, sed Patri jungeret.

84. Paulus quoque ait: Quoniam in ipso condita sunt omnia in coelis et in terra, visibilia et invisibilia (Coloss. I, 16). Numquid cum dicit, in ipso, negavit per ipsum? Non negavit utique, sed asseruit. Denique et alibi dixit: Unus Dominus Jesus, per quem omnia (I Cor. VIII, 6). Ergo cum dicit, per ipsum, negavit in ipso condita esse omnia, per quem dicit esse omnia? Hanc vim habent verba haec: In ipso, et cum ipso (Coloss. I, 16); ut unum in his atque consimile, non contrarium intelligatur. Quod etiam in inferioribus manifestavit dicens: Omnia per ipsum, et in ipso creata sunt (Ibid.); haec enim tria in Christo unum esse: cum ipso, et per ipsum, et in ipso, 0796C sicut supra diximus (Lib. II, cap. 8, 9), Scriptura 0797A testatur. Habes enim per ipsum et in ipso condita esse omnia.

85. Accipe etiam quia cum ipso Pater, et ipse cum Patre erat; cum omnia conderentur. Sapientia dicit: Cum pararet coelos, cum illo eram; cum faceret fontes aquarum (Prov. VIII, 27). Et in veteri Testamento dicendo Pater, Faciamus (Gen. I, 26), ostendit Filium secum adorandum, quasi omnium conditorem. Sicut ergo in Filio creata dicuntur, quorum Filius creator accipitur; ita etiam cum in veritate adorari Deus dicitur, verbi ipsius proprietate in eumdem modum frequenter expressa debet intelligi, quod et Filius adoretur. Similiter itaque adoratur et Spiritus; quia Deus adoratur in Spiritu. Ergo Pater et cum Filio adoratur, et cum Spiritu, quia Trinitas 0797B adoratur.