Chapter XII.

After proof that the Spirit is the Giver of revelation equally with the Father and the Son, it is explained how the same Spirit does not speak of Himself; and it is shown that no bodily organs are to be thought of in Him, and that no inferiority is to be supposed from the fact of our reading that He hears, since the same would have to be attributed to the Son, and indeed even to the Father, since He hears the Son. The Spirit then hears and glorifies the Son in the sense that He revealed Him to the prophets and apostles, by which the Unity of operation of the Three Persons is inferred; and, since the Spirit does the same works as the Father, the substance of each is also declared to be the same.

130. It has then been proved that like as God has revealed to us the things which are His, so too the Son, and so too the Spirit, has revealed the things of God. For our knowledge proceeds from one Spirit, through one Son to one Father; and from one Father through one Son to one Holy Spirit is delivered goodness and sanctification and the sovereign right of eternal power. Where, then, there is a manifestation of the Spirit, there is the power of God, nor can there be any distinction where the work is one. And therefore that which the Son says the Father also says, and that which the Father says the Son also says, and that which the Father and the Son say the Holy Spirit also says.

131. Whence also the Son of God said concerning the Holy Spirit: “He shall not speak from Himself,”409    S. John xvi. 13. that is, not without the participation of the Father and Myself. For the Spirit is not divided and separated, but speaks what He hears. He hears, that is to say, by unity of substance and by the property of knowledge. For He receives not hearing by any orifices of the body, nor does the divine voice resound with any carnal measures, nor does He hear what He knows not; since commonly in human matters hearing produces knowledge, and yet not even in men themselves is there always bodily speech or fleshly hearing. For “he that speaketh in tongues,” it is said, “speaketh not to men but to God, for no one heareth, but in the Spirit he speaketh mysteries.”410    1 Cor. xiv. 2.

132. Therefore if in men hearing is not always of the body, do you require in God the voices of man’s weakness, and certain organs of fleshly hearing, when He is said to hear in order that we may believe that He knows? For we know that which we have heard, and we hear beforehand that we may be able to know; but in God Who knows all things knowledge goes before hearing. So in order to state that the Son is not ignorant of what the Father wills, we say that He has heard; but in God there is no sound nor syllable, such as usually signify the indication of the will; but oneness of will is comprehended in hidden ways in God, but in us is shown by signs.

133. What means, then, “He shall not speak from Himself”? This is, He shall not speak without Me; for He speaks the truth, He breathes wisdom. He speaks not without the Father, for He is the Spirit of God; He hears not from Himself, for all things are of God.

134. The Son received all things from the Father, for He Himself said: “All things have been delivered unto Me from My Father.”411    S. Matt. xi. 27. All that is the Father’s the Son also has, for He says again: “All things which the Father hath are Mine.”412    S. John xv. 15. And those things which He Himself received by Unity of nature, the Spirit by the same Unity of nature received also from Him, as the Lord Jesus Himself declares, when speaking of His Spirit: “Therefore said I, He shall receive of Mine and shall declare it unto you.”413    S. John xv. 15. Therefore what the Spirit says is the Son’s, what the Son hath given is the Father’s. So neither the Son nor the Spirit speaks anything of Himself. For the Trinity speaks nothing external to Itself.

135. But if you contend that this is an argument for the weakness of the Holy Spirit, and for a kind of likeness to the lowliness of the body, you will also make it an argument to the injury of the Son, because the Son said of Himself: “As I hear I judge,”414    S. John v. 30. and “The Son can do nothing else than what He seeth the Father doing.”415    S. John v. 19. For if that be true, as it is, which the Son said: “All things which the Father hath are Mine,”416    S. John xvi. 15. and the Son according to the Godhead is One with the Father, One by natural substance, not according to the Sabellian417    Sabellianism denied the doctrine of the Trinity, maintaining that God is One Person only, manifesting Himself in three characters. See Dict. Chr. Biog. art. “Sabellius,” and Blunt, Dict of Sects, etc. falsehood; that which is one by the property of substance certainly cannot be separated, and so the Son cannot do anything except what He has heard of the Father, for the Word of God endures forever,418    Ps. cxix. [cxviii.] 89. nor is the Father ever separated from the operation of the Son; and that which the Son works He knows that the Father wills, and what the Father wills the Son knows how to work.

136. Lastly, that one may not think that there is any difference of work either in time or in order between the Father and the Son, but may believe the oneness of the same operation, He says: “The works which I do He doeth.”419    Either S. John v. 17 modified, or a reminiscence of v. 19. And again, that one may not think that there is any difference in the distinction of the works, but may judge that the will, the working, and the power of the Father and the Son are the same, Wisdom says concerning the Father: “For whatsoever things He doeth, the Son likewise doeth the same.”420    S. John v. 19. So that the action of neither Person is before or after that of the Other, but the same result of one operation. And for this reason the Son says that He can do nothing of Himself, because His operation cannot be separated from that of the Father. In like manner the operation of the Holy Spirit is not separated. Whence also the things which He speaks, He is said to hear from the Father.

137. What if I demonstrate that the Father also hears the Son, as the Son too hears the Father? For you have it written in the Gospel that the Son says: “Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me.”421    S. John xi. 41. How did the Father hear the Son, since in the previous passage concerning Lazarus the Son spoke nothing to the Father? And that we might not think that the Son was heard once by the Father, He added: “And I knew that Thou hearest Me always.”422    S. John xi. 42. Therefore the hearing is not that of subject obedience, but of eternal Unity.

138. In like manner, then, the Spirit is said to hear from the Father, and to glorify the Son. To glorify, because the Holy Spirit taught us that the Son is the Image of the invisible God,423    Col. i. 15. and the brightness of His glory, and the impress of His substance.424    Heb. i. 3. The Spirit also spoke in the patriarchs and the prophets, and, lastly, the apostles began then to be more perfect after that they had received the Holy Spirit. There is therefore no separation of the divine power and grace, for although “there are diversities of gifts, yet it is the same Spirit; and diversities of ministrations, yet the same Lord; and diversities of operations, yet the same God Who worketh all in all.”425    1 Cor. xii. 4, 5, 6. There are diversities of offices, not severances of the Trinity.

139. Lastly, it is the same God Who worketh all in all, that you may know that there is no diversity of operation between God the Father and the Holy Spirit; since those things which the Spirit works, God the Father also works, “Who worketh all in all.” For while God the Father worketh all in all, yet “to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; to another faith, in the same Spirit; to another the gift of healings, in the one Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of sayings; but all these worketh one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one as He will.”426    1 Cor. xii. 8 ff.

140. There is then no doubt but that those things which the Father worketh, the Spirit worketh also. Nor does He work in accordance with a command, as he who hears in bodily fashion, but voluntarily, as being free in His own will, not the servant of the power of another. For He does not obey as being bidden, but as the giver He is the controller of His own gifts.

141. Consider meanwhile whether you can say that the Spirit effects all things which the Father effects; for you cannot deny that the Father effects those things which the Holy Spirit effects; otherwise the Father does not effect all things, if He effects not those things which the Spirit also effects. But if the Father also effects those things which the Spirit effects, since the Spirit divides His operations, according to His own will, you must of necessity say, either that what the Spirit divides He divides according to His own will, against the will of God the Father; or if you say that the Father wills the same that the Holy Spirit wills, you must of necessity confess the oneness of the divine will and operation, even if you do it unwillingly, and, if not with the heart, at least with the mouth.

142. But if the Holy Spirit is of one will and operation with God the Father, He is also of one substance, since the Creator is known by His works. So, then, it is the same Spirit, he says, the same Lord, the same God.427    1 Cor. xii. 5. And if you say Spirit, He is the same; and if you say Lord, He is the same; and if you say God, He is the same. Not the same, so that Himself is Father, Himself Son, Himself Spirit [one and the selfsame Person]; but because both the Father and the Son are the same Power. He is, then, the same in substance and in power, for there is not in the Godhead either the confusion of Sabellius nor the division of Arius, nor any earthly and bodily change.

CAPUT XII.

Probato Spiritum aeque revelare ac Patrem et Filium, quomodo non loquatur a se idem Spiritus, explicatur; ostenditurque non cogitanda in ipso corporeo organa, nec ullam inferioritatem ex eo fingendam, quod audire legatur; quando idem Filio esset attribuendum; 0770C immo vero etiam Patri, cum et ipse audiat Filium. Spiritum igitur eo sensu audire et clarificare Filium, quod eum prophetis atque apostolis revelavit; qua ex re operationis trium personarum unitas astruitur; et cum eadem Spiritus operetur, quae Pater eadem quoque declaratur utriusque esse substantia.

130. Probatum est igitur quia sicut Deus nobis quae sua sunt, ita et Filius quae Dei sunt, ita etiam Spiritus revelavit. Ex uno enim Spiritu per unum Filium in unum Patrem cognitio nostra procedit: et ex uno Patre per unum Filium in unum Spiritum sanctum bonitas et sanctificatio et imperiale jus aeternae traditur potestatis. Ubi ergo ostensio Spiritus, ibi Dei virtus: nec potest esse discretio, ubi 0770D opus unum est. Et ideo quod loquitur Filius, loquitur 659 et Pater: et quod Pater loquitur, loquitur et Filius: et quod loquitur Pater et Filius, loquitur et Spiritus sanctus.

131. Unde et de Spiritu Filius Dei dixit: Non enim loquetur a se (Joan. XVI, 13), hoc est, non sine mea 0771A et Patris communione; neque enim divisus ac separatus est Spiritus, sed quae audit, loquitur: audit videlicet per unitatem substantiae, et per proprietatem scientiae. Neque enim foraminibus aliquibus corporalibus recipit auditum, et quibusdam divina modulis carnalibus vox resultat, vel audit id quid ignorat; quoniam in rebus humanis scientiam plerumque auditus operatur, et tamen nec in ipsis hominibus semper alloquium corporale, aut carnalis auditus est: Qui enim loquitur linguis, non hominibus, inquit, loquitur, sed Deo. Nemo enim audit, Spiritu autem loquitur mysteria (I Cor. XIV, 2).

132. Ergo si in hominibus non semper auditus est corporalis; in Deo tu infirmitatis humanae sonitus, et quaedam organa exigis carnalis auditus; cum ideo 0771B audire dicatur, ut scire credatur? Nos enim id scimus quod audierimus, et ante audimus, ut scire possimus: in Deo autem qui novit omnia antequam fiant, scientia praecedit auditum. Itaque ut quod velit Pater, Filium non ignorare dicamus, audisse memoramus: sed non in Deo sonus, neque syllaba, quae significare solent indicium voluntatis; sed voluntatis unitas divinis quidem intelligitur arcanis, nostris autem significatur indiciis.

133. Quid est ergo: Non enim a se loquetur? Hoc est, non sine me loquitur; quia loquetur veritatem, sapientiam aspirat. Non sine Patre loquitur, quia Dei Spiritus est: non a se audit, quoniam ex Deo omnia.

134. Omnia accepit a Patre Filius, quia ipse dixit: Omnia mihi tradita sunt a Patre meo (Matth. XI, 27). 0771C Omnia Patris habet Filius; quia iterum ait: Omnia quae Pater habet mea sunt (Joan. XVI, 15). Et quae accepit ipse per unitatem naturae, ex ipso per eamdem unitatem accepit et Spiritus, sicut ipse Dominus Jesus declarat, de Spiritu suo dicens: Propterea dixi, de meo accipiet, et annuntiabit vobis (Ibid.). Quod ergo loquitur Spiritus, Filii est: quod dedit Filius, Patris est. Ita nihil a se aut Filius loquitur aut Spiritus, quia nihil extra se Trinitas loquitur.

135. Quod si ad infirmitatem Spiritus sancti, et quamdam corporeae similitudinem vilitatis id derivari contendas; etiam ad Filii injuriam derivabis; quia et de se Filius dixit: Sicut audio, judico; et, Non potest aliud facere Filius, nisi quod viderit facientem Patrem (Joan. V, 30). Si enim verum est, sicut 0771D verum est, quod dixit Filius: Omnia quae Pater habet, mea sunt (Ibid., 19); et secundum divinitatem unum est cum Patre Filius, unum per substantiam naturalem, non unus secundum Sabellianam perfidiam. Quod unum utique est per substantiae proprietatem, non potest separari; et ideo non potest Filius facere, nisi quod audierit a Patre; quia in aeternum est permanens Dei Verbum (Psal. CXVIII, 89), nec umquam Pater a Filii operatione dividitur: et quod operatur Filius scit Patrem velle: et quod vult Pater, Filius novit operari.

660 136. Denique ne vel in tempore, vel in ordine 0772A aliquam inter Patrem et Filium putares operis esse distantiam, sed ejusdem operationis crederes unitatem: Et opera, inquit, quae ego facio, ipse facit (Joan. V, 17). Et rursus ne discretionem aliquam in operis distinctione sentires, sed idem velle, idem facere, idem posse Patrem et Filium judicares, dicit tibi Sapientia de Patre: Quaecumque enim ille fecerit, eadem et Filius facit similiter (Ibid., 19). Non ergo alicui prior vel secundus est actus, sed idem unius operationis effectus. Et ideo nihil a se posse facere Filius dicitur; quia a Patre non potest ejus operatio separari. Similiter et Spiritus sancti operatio non secernitur. Unde etiam ea quae loquitur. audire a Patre dicitur.

137. Quid si doceo quia et Pater audit Filium, sicut 0772B ut et Filius audit Patrem? Habes enim scriptum in Evangelio, quia dicit Filius: Pater, gratias tibi ago, quia audisti me (Joan. XI, 41). Quomodo audivit Pater Filium, cum Filius nihil ad Patrem in superioribus de Lazaro sit locutus? Ac ne putares quia semel a Patre auditus est Filius, addidit: Et ego sciebam quia semper me audis (Ibid., 42). Ergo non subjectae obedientiae, sed unitatis auditus est sempiternae.

138. Similiter igitur et audire a Patre Spiritus, et clarificare Filium dicitur. Clarificare ideo, quia docuit nos Spiritus sanctus Filium Dei imaginem esse invisibilis Dei, et splendorem gloriae, et characterem substantiae ejus (Coloss. I, 15), Spiritus enim et in patriarchis et in prophetis locutus est: et apostoli denique tunc perfectiores esse coeperunt, posteaquam 0772C Spiritum receperunt (Hebr. I, 1, 2). Nulla ergo distantia divinae virtutis et gratiae; nam licet divisiones gratiarum sint, idem autem Spiritus: et divisiones ministeriorum sint, idem autem Dominus: et divisiones operationum sint, idem autem Deus, qui operatur omnia in omnibus (I Cor. XII, 4 et seq.). Divisiones sunt munerum, non separationes Trinitatis.

139. Denique idem est Deus qui operatur omnia in omnibus; ut scias quia non est discretio operationis inter Deum Patrem et Spiritum sanctum, quando ea quae operatur Spiritus, operatur et Pater Deus, qui operatur omnia in omnibus. Nam cum operetur omnia in omnibus Pater: Alii tamen datur per Spiritum sermo sapientiae, alii sermo scientiae secundum eumdem Spiritum, alteri fides in eodem Spiritu, alii 0772D gratia curationum in uno Spiritu, alii operatio virtutum, alii prophetia, alii discretio spirituum, alii genera linguarum, alii interpretatio sermonum. Haec autem omnia operatur unus atque idem Spiritus, dividens singulis prout vult (Ibid., 8 et seq.).

140. Non est ergo dubium, quin ea quae operatur Pater, operetur et Spiritus. Nec ex praecepto, sicut qui corporaliter audit, operatur: sed ex voluntate, qui sui est liber arbitrii, non alienae famulus potestatis. Non enim quasi jussus obtemperat, sed quasi largitor suae moderator est largitatis.

141. Vide nunc interim utrum omnia operari dieas 0773A Spiritum, quae operatur et Pater; negare tamen non potes quia operatur Pater, 661 quae operatur Spiritus sanctus: alioquin non omnia operatur Pater, si non operatur ea quae operatur et Spiritus. Quod si ea quae operatur Spiritus, operatur et Pater; cum Spiritus operationes suas pro voluntate sua dividat, necesse est id quod dividit Spiritus, aut invito Patre Deo, dicas eum ex sua voluntate dividere: aut si idem velle dixeris Patrem, quod vult Spiritus sanctus; necesse est ut unitatem voluntatis operationisque divinae vel invitus, et si non corde, saltem ore fatearis.

142. Quod si unius et voluntatis et operationis est cum Patre Deo Spiritus sanctus, unius etiam substantiae est; quoniam ex operibus suis creator agnoscitur. Idem igitur Spiritus, idem, inquit, Dominus, 0773B idem, inquit, Deus (Ibid., 5). Et si Spiritum dicas, idem, est: et si Dominum dicas, idem est: et si Deum dicas, idem est. Non idem ut ipse Pater, ipse Filius, ipse sit Spiritus: sed quia et Pater et Filius ejusdem est potestatis. Idem ergo est per substantiam atque virtutem; quia non est in divinitate vel Sabelliana confusio, vel Ariana discretio, vel terrena corporalisque mutatio.