Chapter XVI.

The Father is holy, and likewise the Son and the Spirit, and so They are honoured in the same Trisagion: nor can we speak more worthily of God than by calling Him Holy; whence it is clear that we must not derogate from the dignity of the Holy Spirit. In Him is all which pertains to God, since in baptism He is named with the Father and the Son, and the Father has given to Him to be greater than all, nor can any one deprive Him of this. And so from the very passage of St. John which heretics used against His dignity, the equality of the Trinity and the Unity of the Godhead is established. Lastly, after explaining how the Son receives from the Father, St. Ambrose shows how various heresies are refuted by the passage cited.

109. So, then, the Father is holy, the Son is holy, and the Spirit is holy, but they are not three Holies;595    This is, of course, to be understood as in the Athanasian Creed. The attributes of eternity, omnipotence, etc., are ascribed to each of the Three Persons, and we are then told that there are not three Eternals, etc. Each Person of the Holy Trinity possesses each attribute, but the attributes are all one and cannot be divided any more than the Godhead. Each Person is holy, but there are not, so to say, three separate Holinesses. for there is one Holy God, one Lord. For the true holiness is one, as the true Godhead is one, as that true holiness belonging to the Divine Nature is one.

110. So everything which we esteem holy proclaims that Sole Holiness. Cherubim and Seraphim with unwearied voices praise Him and say: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God of Sabaoth.”596    Isa. vi. 3. They say it, not once, lest you should believe that there is but one; not twice, lest you should exclude the Spirit; they say not holies [in the plural], lest you should imagine that there is plurality, but they repeat thrice and say the same word, that even in a hymn you may understand the distinction of Persons in the Trinity, and the oneness of the Godhead and while they say this they proclaim God.

111. We too find nothing of more worth, whereby we are able to proclaim God, than the calling Him holy. Everything is too low for God, too low for the Lord. And therefore consider from this fact also whether one ought at all to derogate from the Holy Spirit, whose Name is the praise of God. For thus is the Father praised, thus is the Son also praised, in the same manner as the Spirit also is named and praised. The Seraphim utter praise, the whole company of the blessed utter praise, inasmuch as they call God holy, the Son holy, the Spirit holy.

112. How, then, does He not possess all that pertains to God, Who is named by priests in baptism with the Father and the Son, and is invoked in the oblations, is proclaimed by the Seraphim in heaven with the Father and the Son, dwells in the Saints with the Father and the Son, is poured upon the just, is given as the source of inspiration to the prophets? And for this reason in the divine Scripture all is called θεόπνευστος, because God inspires what the Spirit has spoken.

113. Or if they are unwilling to allow that the Holy Spirit has all things which pertain to God, and can do all things, let them say what He has not, and what He cannot do. For like as the Son has all things, and the Father grudges not to give all things to the Son according to His nature, having given to Him that which is greater than all, as the Scripture bears witness, saying: “That which My Father hath given unto Me is greater than all.”597    S. John x. 29. So too the Spirit has of Christ that which is greater than all, because righteousness knows not grudging.

114. So, then, if we attend diligently, we comprehend here also the oneness of the Divine Power. He says: “That which My Father hath given unto Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are One.”598    S. John x. 29, 30. For if we rightly showed above that the Holy Spirit is the Hand of the Father, the same is certainly the Hand of the Father which is the Hand of the Son, since the Same is the Spirit of the Father Who is the Spirit of the Son. Therefore whosoever of us receives eternal life in this Name of the Trinity, as he is not torn from the Father; so he is not torn from the Son, so too he is not torn from the Spirit.

115. Again, from the very fact that the Father is said to have given to the Son, and the Spirit to have received from the Son, as it is written: “He shall glorify Me, for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you”599    S. John xvi. 14. (which He seems to have said rather of the office of distributing, than of the prerogative of Divine Power, for those whom the Son redeemed the Spirit also, Who was to sanctify them, received), from those very words, I say, from which they construct their sophistry, the Unity of the Godhead is perceived, not the need of a gift.

116. The Father gave by begetting, not by adoption; He gave as it were that which was contained in the very prerogative of the Divine Nature, not what was lacking as it were by favour of His bounty. And so because the Son acquires persons to Himself as the Father does; so gives life as does the Father, He expressed His equality with the Father in the Unity of Power, saying: “I and the Father are One.” For when He says, “I and the Father,” equality is revealed; when He says, “are One,” Unity is asserted. Equality excludes confusion; Unity excludes separation. Equality distinguishes between the Father and the Son; Unity does not separate the Father and the Son.

117. Therefore, when He says, “I and the Father,” He rejects the Sabellian, for He says that He is one, the Father another; He rejects the Photinian, for He joins Himself with God the Father. With the former words He rejects those, for He said: “I and the Father;” with the latter words He rejects the Arians, for He says: “are One.” Yet in both the former and the latter words He refutes the heretical violence (1) of the Sabellians, for He said: “We are One [Substance],” not “We are One[Person].” And (2) of the Arians, for He said: “I and the Father,” not “the Father and I.” Which was certainly not a sign of rudeness, but of dutifulness and foreknowledge, that we might not think wrongly from the order of the words. For unity knows no order, equality knows no gradation; nor can it be laid to the Son of God that the Teacher Himself of dutifulness should offend against dutifulness by rudeness.

688 CAPUT XVI.

Patrem sanctum esse, ac similiter Filium et Spiritum, atque hinc trisagio eodem celebrari: nec posse a nobis Deum praedicari dignius, quam si eumdem sanctum dicamus; unde clarum fit Spiritui sancto non derogandum. Eidem inesse omnia quae Dei sunt, cum in baptismate una cum Patre et Filio nominetur, eique Pater dederit quod majus omnibus est, nec quisquam ipsi valeat eripere. Igitur e loco Joannis unde calumniam conflabant haeretici, Trinitatis aequalitatem unitatemque astrui deitatis. Tandem ubi expositum est quo pacto Filius a Patre accipiat, 0802Dquemadmodum citato loco jugulentur varii haeretici, aperitur.

109. (Alias cap. XVIII.) Ergo sanctus Pater, sanctus Filius, sanctus et Spiritus: sed non tres sancti; 0803A quia unus est Deus sanctus, unus est Dominus. Una est enim vera sanctitas, sicut una est vera divinitas, una illa vera sanctitas naturalis.

110. Ideo omnia haec quae sancta nos credimus, illam solam praedicant sanctitatem. Cherubim et Seraphim indefessis vocibus laudant et dicunt: Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth (Esai. VI, 3). Non semel dicunt, i.e singularitatem credas: non bis dicunt, ne Spiritum excludas: non sanctos dicunt, ne pluralitatem aestimes: sed ter repetunt, et idem dicunt, ut etiam in hymno distinctionem Trinitatis, et divinitatis intelligas unitatem: hoc cum dicunt, Deum praedicant.

111. Nos quoque nihil pretiosius invenimus quo Deum praedicare possimus, nisi ut sanctum appellemus. 0803B Quodlibet aliud inferius Deo, inferius est Domino. Ergo hinc quoque considerate utrum aliquid sancto Spiritui derogandum sit, cujus nomen Dei laus est. Sic enim laudatur Pater, sic laudatur et Filius, quemadmodum et Spiritus nominatur et laudatur. Seraphim laudat, omnis beatorum chorus laudat, ut sanctum Deum dicat, sanctum Filium, sanctum Spiritum.

112. Quomodo igitur non omnia habet quae Dei sunt, qui cum Patre et Filio a sacerdotibus in baptismate nominatur et in oblationibus invocatur cum Patre et Filio a Seraphim in coelestibus praedicatur cum Patre et Filio habitat in sanctis, infunditur justis, inspiratur prophetis. Unde et in Scriptura divina θεόπνευστος omnis ex hoc dicitur, quod Deus inspiret quae locutus est Spiritus (II Tim. III, 16).

0803C 113. Aut si nolunt omnia habere quae Dei sunt, et posse omnia Spiritum sanctum, dicant quid non habeat, quidve non possit. Nam sicut omnia habet Filius, nec invidet Pater quominus omnia naturaliter det Filio, qui dedit 689 quod majus est omnibus, quemadmodum Scriptura testatur dicens: Pater quod dedit mihi, majus est omnibus (Joan. X, 29); ita etiam Spiritus Christi habet, quod majus est omnibus, quia justitia nescit invidiam.

114. Itaque si diligenter advertamus, etiam hic divinae potestatis comprehendimus unitatem. Pater, inquit, quod dedit mihi majus omnibus est: et nemo potest rapere ea de manu Patris mei. Ego et Pater unum sumus (Ib. 30). Nam si recte supra ostendimus (Lib. III, cap. 3) manum Dei esse Spiritum sanctum, eadem 0803D utique manus Patris est, quae Filii est manus; quoniam idem Spiritus Patris, qui Spiritus Filii est. Ideo sicut non rapitur Patri, ita non rapitur Filio, ita non rapitur et Spiritui, quicumque de nobis 0804A in hoc nomine Trinitatis vitam accepit aeternam.

115. Ex ipso autem quod et dedisse Filio Pater, et accepisse a Filio Spiritus dicitur; quia scriptum est (Joan. XVI, 14): Ille me clarificabit, quia de meo accipiet, et annuntiabit vobis (quod de munere magis dispensationis videtur, quam de potestatis divinae jure dixisse, quia quos Filius redemit, Spiritus quoque sanctificaturus accepit); ex istis ipsis, inquam, verbis, de quibus calumniam instruunt, unitas divinitatis advertitur, non indigentia largitatis.

116. Dedit Pater per generationem, non per adoptionem: dedit quasi id quod esset in ipso divinae jure naturae, non quasi liberalitatis gratia, quod deesset. Et ideo quia sic acquisit Filius populos ut Pater, sic vivificat Filius ut Pater, aequalitatem suam 0804B ad Patrem unitate potestatis expressit dicens: Ego et Pater unum sumus. Cum enim dicit: Ego et Pater, revelatur aequalitas: cum dicit: Unum sumus, unitas declaratur. Aequalitas confusionem excludit, unitas separationem: aequalitas Patrem Filiumque distinguit, unitas Patrem Filiumque non separat.

117. Ergo cum dicit, Ego et Pater, Sabellianum repellit; quia alium se, alium Patrem dixit: repellit Photinianum, quia se cum Deo Patre junxit. Illos superioribus repellit, quia dixit, Ego et Pater: inferioribus Arianos, quia dicit: Unum sumus; tamen et in superioribus et in inferioribus haereticam jugulat saevitatem Sabellianorum; quia unum dixit sumus, non unus sumus: Arianorum; quia ego et Pater, non Pater et ego dixit. Quod utique non contumaciae, sed 0804C pietatis et praescientiae fuit; ne nos errorem in ordine putaremus. Nescit enim unitas ordinem, gradum nescit aequalitas: nec cadit in Dei Filium, ut per contumaciam pietatem laederet magister ipse pietatis.