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| He Next Teaches Us that the Authority of the Faith Enjoins, After the Father and the Son, to Believe Also on the Holy Spirit, Whose Operations He Enumerates from Scripture.
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Chapter
XXIX. Argument.—He Next Teaches Us that the
Authority of the Faith Enjoins, After the Father and the Son, to
Believe Also on the Holy Spirit, Whose Operations He Enumerates from
Scripture.
Moreover, the order of reason, and the authority
of the faith in the disposition of the words and in the Scriptures of
the Lord, admonish us after these things to believe also on the Holy
Spirit, once promised to the Church, and in the appointed occasions of
times given. For He was promised by Joel the prophet, but given
by Christ. “In the last days,” says the prophet,
“I will pour out of my Spirit upon my servants and my
handmaids.”5257
And
the Lord said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins ye
remit, they shall be remitted; and whose ye retain, they shall be
retained.”5258
But
this Holy Spirit the Lord Christ calls at one time “the
Paraclete,” at another pronounces to be the “Spirit of
truth.”5259
And
He is not new in the Gospel, nor yet even newly given; for it was He
Himself who accused the people in the prophets, and in the apostles
gave them the appeal to the Gentiles. For the former deserved to
be accused, because they had contemned the law; and they of the
Gentiles who believe deserve to be aided by the defence of the Spirit,
because they earnestly desire to attain to the Gospel law.
Assuredly in the Spirit there are different kinds of offices, because
in the times there is a different order of occasions; and yet, on this
account, He who discharges these offices is not different, nor is He
another in so acting, but He is one and the same, distributing His
offices according to the times, and the occasions and impulses of
things. Moreover, the Apostle Paul says, “Having the same
Spirit; as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we
also believe, and therefore speak.”5260
He is therefore one and the same
Spirit who was in the prophets and apostles, except that in the former
He was occasional, in the latter always. But in the former not as
being always in them, in the latter as abiding always in them; and in
the former distributed with reserve, in the latter all poured out; in
the former given sparingly, in the latter liberally bestowed; not yet
manifested before the Lord’s resurrection, but conferred after
the resurrection. For, said He, “I will pray the Father,
and He will give you another Advocate, that He may be with you for
ever, even the Spirit of truth.”5261
And, “When He, the
Advocate, shall come, whom I shall send unto you from my Father, the
Spirit of truth who proceedeth from my Father.”5262
And, “If I go not away,
that Advocate shall not come to you; but if I go away, I will send Him
to you.”5263
And, “When the Spirit of truth shall come, He will direct you
into all the truth.”5264
And because the Lord was about
to depart to the heavens, He gave the Paraclete out of necessity to the
disciples; so as not to leave them in any degree orphans,5265
which was
little desirable, and forsake them without an advocate and some kind of
protector. For this is He who strengthened their hearts and
minds, who marked out the Gospel sacraments, who was in them the
enlightener of divine things; and they being strengthened, feared, for
the sake of the Lord’s name, neither dungeons nor chains, nay,
even trod under foot the very powers of the world and its tortures,
since they were henceforth armed and strengthened by the same Spirit,
having in themselves the gifts which this same Spirit distributes, and
appropriates to the Church, the spouse of Christ, as her ornaments.
This is He who places prophets in the Church, instructs teachers,
directs tongues, gives powers and healings, does wonderful works,
offers discrimination of spirits, affords powers of government,
suggests counsels, and orders and arranges whatever other gifts there
are of charismata; and thus make the Lord’s Church
everywhere, and in all, perfected and completed. This is He who,
after the manner of a dove, when our Lord was baptized, came and abode
upon Him, dwelling in Christ full and entire, and not maimed in any
measure or portion; but with His whole overflow copiously distributed
and sent forth, so that from Him others might receive some enjoyment of
His graces: the source of the entire Holy Spirit remaining in
Christ, so that from Him might be drawn streams of gifts and works,
while the Holy Spirit dwelt affluently in Christ. For truly
Isaiah, prophesying this, said: “And the Spirit of wisdom
and understanding shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and piety; and the Spirit of the fear of the
Lord shall fill Him.”5266
This self-same thing also he
said in the person of the Lord Himself, in another place, “The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because He has anointed me, He has sent
me to preach the Gospel to the poor.”5267
Similarly David:
“Wherefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of
gladness above thy fellows.”5268
Of Him the Apostle Paul
says: “For he who hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of
His.”5269
“And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty.”5270
He
it is who effects with water the second birth as a certain seed of
divine generation, and a consecration of a heavenly nativity, the
pledge of a promised inheritance, and as it were a kind of handwriting
of eternal salvation; who can make us God’s temple, and fit us
for His house; who solicits the divine hearing for us with groanings
that cannot be uttered; filling the offices of advocacy, and
manifesting the duties of our defence,—an inhabitant given for
our bodies and an effector of their holiness. Who, working in us
for eternity, can also produce our bodies at the resurrection of
immortality, accustoming them to be associated in Himself with heavenly
power, and to be allied with the divine eternity of the Holy
Spirit. For our bodies are both trained in Him and by Him to
advance to immortality, by learning to govern themselves with
moderation according to His decrees. For this is He who
“desireth against the flesh,” because “the flesh
resisteth against the Spirit.”5271
This is He who restrains
insatiable desires, controls immoderate lusts, quenches unlawful fires,
conquers reckless impulses, repels drunkenness, checks avarice, drives
away luxurious revellings, links love, binds together affections, keeps
down sects, orders the rule of truth, overcomes heretics, turns out the
wicked, guards the Gospel. Of this says the same apostle:
“We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit
which is of God.”5272
Concerning Him he exultingly
says: “And I think also that I have the Spirit of
God.”5273
Of
Him he says: “The Spirit of the prophets is subject to the
prophets.”5274
Of Him also he tells: “Now the Spirit speaketh plainly,
that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to
seducing spirits, doctrines of demons, who speak lies in hypocrisy,
having their conscience cauterized.”5275
Established in this Spirit,
“none ever calleth Jesus anathema;”5276
no one has ever denied Christ to be
the Son of God, or has rejected God the Creator; no one utters any
words of his own contrary to the Scriptures; no one ordains other and
sacrilegious decrees; no one draws up different laws.5277
Whosoever shall blaspheme
against Him, “hath not forgiveness, not only in this world, but
also not in the world to come.”5278
This is He who in the
apostles gives testimony to Christ; in the martyrs shows forth the
constant faithfulness of their religion; in virgins restrains the
admirable continency of their sealed chastity; in others, guards the
laws of the Lord’s doctrine incorrupt and uncontaminated;
destroys heretics, corrects the perverse, condemns infidels, makes
known pretenders; moreover, rebukes the wicked, keeps the Church
uncorrupt and inviolate, in the sanctity of a perpetual virginity and
truth.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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