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| The Father and the Son the Only Beginning (Principium) of the Holy Spirit.
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Chapter 14.—The
Father and the Son the Only Beginning (Principium) of the Holy
Spirit.
15. But in their mutual relation to
one another in the Trinity itself, if the begetter is a beginning
in relation to that which he begets, the Father is a beginning in
relation to the Son, because He begets Him; but whether the Father
is also a beginning in relation to the Holy Spirit, since it is
said, “He proceeds from the Father,” is no small question.
Because, if it is so, He will not only be a beginning to that thing
which He begets or makes, but also to that which He gives. And
here, too, that question comes to light, as it can, which is wont
to trouble many, Why the Holy Spirit is not also a son, since He,
too, comes forth from the Father, as it is read in the Gospel.592
For the
Spirit came forth, not as born, but as given; and so He is not
called a son, because He was neither born, as the Only-begotten,
nor made, so that by the grace of God He might be born into
adoption, as we are. For that which is born of the Father, is
referred to the Father only when called Son, and so the Son is the
Son of the Father, and not also our Son; but that which is given is
referred both to Him who gave, and to those to whom He gave; and so
the Holy Spirit is not only the Spirit of the Father and of the Son
who gave Him, but He is also called ours, who have
received Him: as “The salvation of the Lord,”593
who gives salvation, is said also
to be our salvation, who have received it. Therefore, the Spirit is
both the Spirit of God who gave Him, and ours who have received
Him. Not, indeed, that spirit of ours by which we are, because that
is the spirit of a man which is in him; but this Spirit is ours in
another mode, viz. that in which we also say, “Give us
this day our bread.”594
Although certainly we have received
that spirit also, which is called the spirit of a man. “For what
hast thou,” he says, “which thou didst not receive?”595
But that is
one thing, which we have received that we might be; another, that
which we have received that we might be holy. Whence it is also
written of John, that he “came in the spirit and power of
Elias;”596
and by the
spirit of Elias is meant the Holy Spirit, whom Elias received. And
the same thing is to be understood of Moses, when the Lord says to
him, “And I will take of thy spirit, and will put it upon
them;”597
that is, I
will give to them of the Holy Spirit, which I have already given to
thee. If, therefore, that also which is given has him for a
beginning by whom it is given, since it has received from no other
source that which proceeds from him; it must be admitted that the
Father and the Son are a Beginning of the Holy Spirit, not two
Beginnings; but as the Father and Son are one God, and one Creator,
and one Lord relatively to the creature, so are they one Beginning
relatively to the Holy Spirit. But the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit is one Beginning in respect to the creature, as also
one Creator and one God.598
| 598 [The term “beginning” (principium), when
referring to the relation of the Trinity, or of any person of the
Trinity, to the creature, denotes creative energy, whereby a
new substance is originated from nothing. This is the reference in
chapter 13. But when the term refers to the relations of the
persons of the Trinity to each other, it denotes only a
modifying energy, whereby an existing uncreated substance is
communicated by generation and spiration. This is the reference in
chapter 14.
When it is said that
the Father is the “beginning” of the Son, and the Father and
Son are the “beginning” of the Spirit, it is not meant that the
substance of the Son is created ex nihilo by the Father, and
the substance of the Spirit is created by the Father and Son, but
only that the Son by eternal generation receives from the Father
the one uncreated and undivided substance of the Godhead, and the
Spirit by eternal spiration receives the same numerical substance
from the Father and Son. The term “beginning” relates not to
the essence, but to the personal peculiarity. Sonship originates in
fatherhood; but deity is unoriginated. The Son as the second person
“begins” from the Father, because the Father communicates the
essence to him. His sonship, not his deity or godhood, “begins”
from the Father. And the same holds true of the term
“beginning” as applied to the Holy Spirit. The “procession”
of the Holy Spirit “begins” by spiration from the Father and
Son, but not his deity or godhood.—W.G.T.S.] | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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