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| The Sender and the Sent Equal. Why the Son is Said to Be Sent by the Father. Of the Mission of the Holy Spirit. How and by Whom He Was Sent. The Father the Beginning of the Whole Godhead.
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Chapter 20.—The Sender and
the Sent Equal. Why the Son is Said to Be Sent by the Father. Of
the Mission of the Holy Spirit. How and by Whom He Was Sent. The
Father the Beginning of the Whole Godhead.
27. But if the Son is said to be
sent by the Father on this account, that the one is the Father, and
the other the Son, this does not in any manner hinder us from
believing the Son to be equal, and consubstantial, and co-eternal
with the Father, and yet to have been sent as Son by the Father.
Not because the one is greater, the other less; but because the one
is Father, the other Son; the one begetter, the other begotten; the
one, He from whom He is who is sent; the other, He who is from Him
who sends. For the Son is from the Father, not the Father from the
Son. And according to this manner we can now understand that the
Son is not only said to have been sent because “the Word was made
flesh,”534
but
therefore sent that the Word might be made flesh, and that He might
perform through His bodily presence those things which were
written; that is, that not only is He understood to have been sent
as man, which the Word was made but the Word, too, was sent that it
might be made man; because He was not sent in respect to any
inequality of power, or substance, or anything that in Him was not
equal to the Father; but in respect to this, that the Son is from
the Father, not the Father from the Son; for the Son is the Word of
the Father, which is also called His wisdom. What wonder,
therefore, if He is sent, not because He is unequal with the
Father, but because He is “a pure emanation (manatio)
issuing from the glory of the Almighty God?” For there, that
which issues, and that from which it issues, is of one and the same
substance. For it does not issue as water issues from an aperture
of earth or of stone, but as light issues from light. For the
words, “For she is the brightness of the everlasting light,”
what else are they than, she is light of everlasting light? For
what is the brightness of light, except light itself? and so
co-eternal, with the light, from which the light is. But it is
preferable to say, “the brightness of light,” rather than”
the light of light;” lest that which issues should be thought to
be darker than that from which it issues. For when one hears of the
brightness of light as being light itself, it is more easy to
believe that the former shines by means of the latter, than that
the latter shines less. But because there was no need of warning
men not to think that light to be less, which begat the other (for
no heretic ever dared say this, neither is it to be believed that
any one will dare to do so), Scripture meets that other thought,
whereby that light which issues might seem darker than that from
which it issues; and it has removed this surmise by saying, “It
is the brightness of that light,” namely, of eternal light, and
so shows it to be equal. For if it were less, then it would be its
darkness, not its brightness; but if it were greater, then it could
not issue from it, for it could not surpass that from which it is
educed. Therefore, because it issues from it, it is not greater
than it is; and because it is not its darkness, but its brightness,
it is not less than it is: therefore it is equal. Nor ought this to
trouble us, that it is called a pure emanation issuing from the
glory of the Almighty God, as if itself were not omnipotent, but an
emanation from the Omnipotent; for soon after it is said of it,
“And being but one, she can do all things.”535
| 535 Wisdom 7.25-27" id="iv.i.vi.xxi-p4.1" parsed="|Wis|7|25|7|27" osisRef="Bible:Wis.7.25-Wis.7.27">Wisd. vii. 25–27 | But who is omnipotent, unless He
who can do all things? It is sent, therefore, by Him from whom it
issues; for so she is sought after by him who loved and desired
her. “Send her,” he says, “out of Thy holy heavens, and from
the throne of Thy glory, that, being present, she may labor with
me;”536
| 536 Wisdom 9.10" id="iv.i.vi.xxi-p5.1" parsed="|Wis|9|10|0|0" osisRef="Bible:Wis.9.10">Wisd. ix. 10 | that is, may
teach me to labor [heartily] in order that I may not labor
[irksomely]. For her labors are virtues. But she is sent in one way
that she may be with man; she has been sent in another way that she
herself may be man. For, “entering into holy souls, she
maketh them friends of God and prophets;”537
| 537 Wisdom 7.27" id="iv.i.vi.xxi-p6.1" parsed="|Wis|7|27|0|0" osisRef="Bible:Wis.7.27">Wisd. vii. 27 | so she also fills the holy angels,
and works all things fitting for such ministries by them.538
| 538 [The allusion is to the Wisdom of
Proverbs, and of the Book of Wisdom which Augustin regards as
canonical, as his frequent citations show.—W.G.T.S.] | But when the
fullness of time was come, she was sent,539
not to fill angels, nor to be an
angel, except in so far as she announced the counsel of the Father,
which was her own also; nor, again, to be with men or in men, for
this too took place before, both in the fathers and in the
prophets; but that the Word itself should be made flesh, that is,
should be made man. In which future mystery, when revealed, was to
be the salvation of those wise and holy men also, who, before He
was born of the Virgin, were born of women; and in which, when done
and made known, is the salvation of all who believe, and hope, and
love. For this is “the great mystery of godliness, which540
| 540 Quod, scil.
sacramentum | was manifest
in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached
unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into
glory.”541
28. Therefore the Word of God is
sent by Him, of whom He is the Word; He is sent by Him, from whom
He was begotten (genitum); He sends who begot, That is sent
which is begotten. And He is then sent to each one, when He is
apprehended and perceived by each, in so far as He can be
apprehended and perceived, in proportion to the comprehension of
the rational soul, either advancing towards God, or already perfect
in God. The Son, therefore, is not properly said to have been sent
in that He is begotten of the Father; but either in that the Word
made flesh appeared to the world, whence He says, “I came forth
from the Father, and am come into the world;”542
or in that from time to time, He is
perceived by the mind of each, according to the saying, “Send
her, that, being present with me, she may labor with me.”543
| 543 Wisdom 9.10" id="iv.i.vi.xxi-p13.1" parsed="|Wis|9|10|0|0" osisRef="Bible:Wis.9.10">Wisd. ix. 10 | What then is
born (natum) from eternity is eternal, “for it is the
brightness of the everlasting light;” but what is sent from time
to time, is that which is apprehended by each. But when the Son of
God was made manifest in the flesh, He was sent into this world in
the fullness of time, made of a woman. “For after that, in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God” (since “the
light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it
not”), it “pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe,”544
and that the Word should be made
flesh, and dwell among us.545
But when from time to time He comes
forth and is perceived by the mind of each, He is said indeed to be
sent, but not into this world; for He does not appear sensibly,
that is, He does not present Himself to the corporeal senses. For
we ourselves, too, are not in this world, in respect to our
grasping with the mind as far as we can that which is eternal; and
the spirits of all the righteous are not in this world, even of
those who are still living in the flesh, in so far as they have
discernment in things divine. But the Father is not said to be
sent, when from time to time He is apprehended by any one, for He
has no one of whom to be, or from whom to proceed; since Wisdom
says, “I came out of the mouth of the Most High,”546
and it is
said of the Holy Spirit, “He proceedeth from the Father,”547
but the
Father is from no one.
29. As, therefore, the Father
begat, the Son is begotten; so the Father sent, the Son was sent.
But in like manner as He who begat and He who was begotten, so both
He who sent and He who was sent, are one, since the Father and the
Son are one.548
So also the
Holy Spirit is one with them, since these three are one. For as to
be born, in respect to the Son, means to be from the Father; so to
be sent, in respect to the Son, means to be known to be from the
Father. And as to be the gift of God in respect to the Holy Spirit,
means to proceed from the Father; so to be sent, is to be known to
proceed from the Father. Neither can we say that the Holy Spirit
does not also proceed from the Son, for the same Spirit is not
without reason said to be the Spirit both of the Father and of the
Son.549
| 549 [Augustin here, as in previous
instances, affirms the procession of the Spirit from the Father and
Son.—W.G.T.S.] | Nor do I see
what else He intended to signify, when He breathed on the face of
the disciples, and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”550
For that
bodily breathing, proceeding from the body with the feeling of
bodily touching, was not the substance of the Holy Spirit, but a
declaration by a fitting sign, that the Holy Spirit proceeds not
only from the Father, but also from the Son. For the veriest of
madmen would not say, that it was one Spirit which He gave when He
breathed on them, and another which He sent after His ascension.551
For the
Spirit of God is one, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, the
Holy Spirit, who worketh all in all.552
But that He was given twice was
certainly a significant economy, which we will discuss in
its place, as far as the Lord may grant. That then which the Lord
says,—“Whom I will send unto you from the Father,”553
—shows the
Spirit to be both of the Father and of the Son; because, also, when
He had said, “Whom the Father will send,” He added also, “in
my name.”554
Yet He did
not say, Whom the Father will send from me, as He said, “Whom I
will send unto you from the Father,”—showing, namely, that the
Father is the beginning (principium) of the whole divinity,
or if it is better so expressed, deity.555
| 555 [The term “beginning” is
employed “relatively, and not according to substance,” as
Augustin says. The Father is “the beginning of the whole
deity,” with reference to the personal distinctions of Father,
Son, and Spirit—the Son being from the Father, and the Spirit
from Father and Son. The trinitarian relations or modes of the
essence, “begin” with the first person, not the second or the
third. The phrase “whole deity,” in the above statement, is put
for “trinity,” not for “essence.” Augustin would not say
that the Father is the “beginning” (principium) of the
divine essence considered abstractly, but only of the essence as
trinal. In this sense, Trinitarian writers denominate the
Father “fons trinitatis,” and sometimes “fons
deitatis.” Turrettin employs this latter phraseology (iii.
xxx. i. 8); so does Owen (Communion with Trinity, Ch. iii.);
and Hooker (Polity, v. liv.). But in this case, the guarding
clause of Turretin is to be subjoined: “fons deitatis, si
modus subsistendi spectatur.” The phrase “fons
trinitatis,” or “principium trinitatis,” is less
liable to be misconceived, and more accurate than “fons
deitatis,” or “principum
deitatis.”—W.G.T.S.] | He, therefore, who proceeds from
the Father and from the Son, is referred back to Him from whom the
Son was born (natus). And that which the evangelist says,
“For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not
yet glorified;”556
how is this
to be understood, unless because the special giving or sending of
the Holy Spirit after the glorification of Christ was to be such as
it had never been before? For it was not previously none at all,
but it had not been such as this. For if the Holy Spirit was not
given before, wherewith were the prophets who spoke filled? Whereas
the Scripture plainly says, and shows in many places, that they
spake by the Holy Spirit. Whereas, also, it is said of John the
Baptist, “And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from
his mother’s womb.” And his father Zacharias is found to have
been filled with the Holy Ghost, so as to say such things of him.
And Mary, too, was filled with the Holy Ghost, so as to foretell
such things of the Lord, whom she was bearing in her womb.557
And Simeon
and Anna were filled with the Holy Spirit, so as to acknowledge the
greatness of the little child Christ.558
How, then, was “the Spirit not
yet given, since Jesus was not yet glorified,” unless because
that giving, or granting, or mission of the Holy Spirit was to have
a certain speciality of its own in its very advent, such as never
was before? For we read nowhere that men spoke in tongues which
they did not know, through the Holy Spirit coming upon them; as
happened then, when it was needful that His coming should be made
plain by visible signs, in order to show that the whole world, and
all nations constituted with different tongues, should believe in
Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit, to fulfill that which
is sung in the Psalm, “There is no speech nor language where
their voice is not heard; their sound is gone out through all the
earth, and their words to the end of the world.”559
30. Therefore man was united, and
in some sense commingled, with the Word of God, so as to be One
Person, when the fullness of time was come, and the Son of God,
made of a woman, was sent into this world, that He might be also
the Son of man for the sake of the sons of men. And this person
angelic nature could prefigure beforehand, so as to pre-announce,
but could not appropriate, so as to be that person
itself. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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