SANCTI AMBROSII, MEDIOLANENSIS EPISCOPI, DE SPIRITU SANCTO LIBRI TRES , AD GRATIANUM AUGUSTUM.

 LIBER PRIMUS.

 CAPUT PRIMUM.

 CAPUT II.

 CAPUT III.

 CAPUT IV.

 CAPUT V.

 CAPUT VI.

 617 CAPUT VII.

 CAPUT VIII.

 CAPUT IX.

 CAPUT X.

 CAPUT XI.

 CAPUT XII.

 CAPUT XIII.

 629 CAPUT XIV.

 CAPUT XV.

 CAPUT XVI.

 LIBER SECUNDUS.

 PROLOGUS.

 CAPUT PRIMUM.

 CAPUT II.

 CAPUT III.

 CAPUT IV.

 640 CAPUT V.

 643 CAPUT VI.

 CAPUT VII.

 CAPUT VIII.

 CAPUT IX.

 CAPUT X.

 656 CAPUT XI.

 CAPUT XII.

 CAPUT XIII.

 LIBER TERTIUS.

 665 CAPUT PRIMUM.

 CAPUT II.

 CAPUT III.

 CAPUT IV.

 CAPUT V.

 CAPUT VI.

 CAPUT VII.

 674 CAPUT VIII.

 CAPUT IX.

 CAPUT X.

 679 CAPUT XI.

 683 CAPUT XII.

 CAPUT XIII.

 CAPUT XIV.

 CAPUT XV.

 688 CAPUT XVI.

 690 CAPUT XVII.

 693 CAPUT XVIII.

 CAPUT XIX.

 CAPUT XX.

 CAPUT XXI.

 CAPUT XXII.

Chapter III.

The same Unity may also be recognized from the fact that the Spirit is called Finger, and the Son Right Hand; for the understanding of divine things is assisted by the usage of human language. The tables of the law were written by this Finger, and they were afterwards broken, and the reason. Lastly, Christ wrote with the same Finger; yet we must not admit any inferiority in the Spirit from this bodily comparison.

11. So, too, the Spirit is also called the Finger of God, because there is an indivisible and inseparable communion between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For as the Scripture called the Son of God the Right Hand of God, as it is said: “Thy Right Hand, O Lord, is made glorious in power. Thy Right Hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy;”466    Ex. xv. 6. so the Holy Spirit is called the Finger of God, as the Lord Himself says: “But if I by the Finger of God cast out devils.”467    S. Luke xi. 20. For in the same place in another book of the Gospel He named the Spirit of God, as you find: “But if I by the Spirit of God cast out devils.”468    S. Matt. xii. 28.

12. What, then, could have been said to signify more expressly the unity of the Godhead, or of Its working, which Unity is according to the Godhead of the Father, or of the Son, or of the Holy Spirit, than that we should understand that the fulness of the eternal Godhead would seem to be divided far more than this body of ours, if any one were to sever the unity of Substance, and multiply Its powers, whereas the eternity of the same Godhead is one?

13. For oftentimes it is convenient to estimate from our own words those things which are above us, and because we cannot see those things we draw inferences from those which we can see. “For the invisible things of Him,” says the Apostle, “from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by those things which are made.”469    Rom. i. 20. And he adds: “His eternal power also and Godhead.”470    Rom. i. 20. Of which one thing seems to be said of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit; that in the same manner as the Son is called the eternal Power of the Father, so, also, the Spirit, because He is divine, should be believed to be His eternal Godhead. For the Son, too, because He ever lives, is eternal life. This Finger, then, of God is both eternal and divine. For what is there belonging to God which is not eternal and divine?

14. With this Finger, as we read, God wrote on those tables of stone which Moses received. For God did not with a finger of flesh write the forms and portions of those letters which we read, but gave the law by His Spirit. And so the Apostle says: “For the Law is spiritual, which, indeed, is written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but on fleshy tables of the heart.”471    2 Cor. iii. 3. For if the letter of the Apostle is written in the Spirit, what hinders us from believing that the Law of God was written not with ink, but with the Spirit of God, which certainly does not stain but enlightens the secret places of our heart and mind?

14. Now it was written on tables of stone, because it was written in a type, but the tables were first broken and cast out of the hands of Moses, because the Jews fell away from the works of the prophet. And fitly were the tables broken, not the writing erased. And do you see that your table be not broken, that your mind and soul be not divided. Is Christ divided? He is not divided, but is one with the Father; and let no one separate you from Him. If your faith fails, the table of your heart is broken. The coherence of your soul is lessened if you do not believe the unity of Godhead in the Trinity. Your faith is written, and your sin is written, as Jeremiah said: “Thy sin, O Judah, is written with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond. And it is written,” he says, “on thy breast and on thy heart.”472    Jer. xvii. 1. The sin, therefore, is there where grace is, but the sin is written with a pen, grace is denoted by the Spirit.

15. With this Finger, also, the Lord Jesus, with bowed head, mystically wrote on the ground, when the adulteress was brought before Him by the Jews, signifying in a figure that, when we judge of the sins of another, we ought to remember our own.

16. And lest, again, because God wrote the Law by His Spirit, we should believe any inferiority, as it were, concerning the ministry of the Spirit, or from the consideration of our own body should think the Spirit to be a small part of God, the Apostle says, elsewhere, that he does not speak with words of human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, and that he compares spiritual things with spiritual; but that the natural man receiveth not the things which pertain to the Spirit of God.473    1 Cor. ii. 13, 14. For he knew that he who compared divine with carnal things was amongst natural things, and not to be reckoned amongst spiritual men; “for they are foolishness,” he says, “unto him.”474    1 Cor. ii. 13, 14. And so, because he knew that these questions would arise amongst natural men, foreseeing the future he says: “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.”475    1 Cor. ii. 16.

CAPUT III.

Eamdem quoque unitatem inde cognosci, quod Spiritus digitus dicatur, et Filius dextera; humani enim sermonis consuetudine juvari divinorum intelligentiam. Hoc digito scriptas fuisse legis tabulas, quae postea fractae sunt, et qua de causa? denique Christum scripsisse eodem digito: nec ullam tamen e corporea comparatione in Spiritu admittendam, esse inferioritatem.

11. Unde etiam et digitus Dei appellatus est Spiritus, 0779D eo quod sit Patri et Filio et Spiritui sancto individua, inseparabilisque communio. Nam sicut Filium Dei Scriptura dexteram Dei dixit, sicut lectum est: Dextera tua, Domine, glorificata est in virtute, dextera manus tua, Domine, confregit inimicos (Exod. XV, 6); ita Spiritus sanctus appellatus est digitus Dei, sicut ipse Dominus dicit: Quod si in digito Dei ego ejicio daemonia (Luc. XI, 20). 0780A Hunc enim digitum in alio libro Evangelii eodem loco Dei Spiritum nominavit, sicut habes: Quod si in Spiritu Dei ego ejicio daemonia (Marc. XII, 28).

12. Quid igitur expressius ad significandam divinitatis vel operationis dici potuit unitatem, quae secundum divinitatem est Patris, vel Filii, vel Spiritus sancti, quam ut intelligamus multo magis quam corpus hoc nostrum aeternae plenitudinem divinitatis scindi videri, si quis unitatem substantiae separet, multiplicet potestates; cum una sit ejusdem divinitatis aeternitas?

668 13. Plerumque enim ex nostris sermonibus ea quae supra nos sunt, convenit aestimari: et quia illa videre non possumus, ex his quae videre possumus, colligamus: Invisibilia enim ejus, ait Apostolus, 0780B a creatura mundi per ea quae facta sunt, intellecta conspiciuntur (Rom. I, 20). Et subdidit: Sempiterna quoque virtus ejus et divinitas (Ibid.). Quorum aliud de Filio, aliud de Spiritu sancto dictum videtur; ut quemadmodum sempiterna virtus Patris dicitur Filius, ita etiam Spiritus quia divinus est, sempiterna divinitas esse credatur. Nam et Filius quia semper vivit, vita sempiterna est. Hic ergo digitus Dei et sempiternus est, et divinus. Quid enim Dei proprium, quod non sempiternum sit et divinum?

13. Hoc digito, sicut legimus, tabulas illas lapideas Deus inscripsit, quas Moyses accepit (Exod. XXXI, 18). Non enim carnali digito Deus harum litterarum, quas legimus, apices et elementa formavit: 0780C sed Spiritu suo dedit Legem. Et ideo Apostolus dixit: Lex enim spiritalis est, quae utique non atramento inscripta est, sed Spiritu Dei vivi: non in tabulis lapideis, sed in tabulis cordis carnalibus (II Cor. III, 3). Nam si Apostoli epistola scribitur in Spiritu, quid obstat quonimus etiam legem Dei non atramento, sed Spiritu Dei scriptam credere debeamus: quae utique cordis nostri mentisque secreta non maculat, sed illuminat?

14. Scripta est autem in tabulis lapideis (Exod. XXXII, 19), quia in typo scripta est: sed tabulae fractae primo sunt, et abjectae de Moysis manibus; quia Judaei a propheticis operibus exciderunt. Et bene tabulae fractae sunt, non scriptura deleta. Et tu vide ne frangatur tabula tua, ne mens tua et 0780D animus dividatur. Numquid divisus est Christus? Non divisus est, sed unum est cum Patre: et te nemo ab eo separet. Si fides deficiat, tabula cordis tui frangitur. Comminuitur animi firmitudo, si unitatem divinitatis in Trinitate non credas. Scripta est et fides tua, scripta est et culpa tua, sicut Hieremias dixit: Scripta est, Juda, culpa tua graphio ferreo et ungue adamantino. Et scripta est, inquit, in 0781A pectore et in corde tuo (Jerem. XVII, 1). Ibi igitur culpa est, ubi gratia: sed culpa graphio scribitur, gratia Spiritu designatur.

15. Hoc digito mystice etiam Dominus Jesus, inclinato capite, scribebat in terra, cum a Judaeis adultera esset oblata (Joan. VIII, 6): significans per figuram, quando de peccatis alterius judicamus, nostri nos debere meminisse peccati.

16. Ac ne rursus quia Legem Deus Spiritu suo scripsit, inferius aliquid tamquam de ministerio Spiritus crederemus, vel ex corporis nostri aestimatione portionem quamdam exiguam Dei Spiritum putaremus, ait alibi Apostolus (II Cor. II, 13) non se humanae scientiae verbis loqui, sed doctis Spiritus, et spiritualibus spiritalia comparare: animalem 0781B autem hominem non percipere quae sunt Spiritus Dei; sciebat enim quod is, qui divina carnalibus compararet, inter animalia esset, non inter spiritales homines computandus: 669 Stultitia enim, inquit, illi est (Ibid. 14). Et ideo quia sciret has futuras esse animalium hominum quaestiones, praesagus futuri ait: Quis enim cognovit sensum Domini, qui instruat eum (Ibid. 16)? Nos autem sensum Christi habemus.