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| He proceeds to discuss the views held by Eunomius, and by the Church, touching the Holy Spirit; and to show that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are not three Gods, but one God. He also discusses different senses of “Subjection,” and therein shows that the subjection of all things to the Son is the same as the subjection of the Son to the Father.
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§14. He proceeds to
discuss the views held by Eunomius, and by the Church, touching the
Holy Spirit; and to show that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost
are not three Gods, but one God. He also discusses different senses of
“Subjection,” and therein shows that the subjection of all
things to the Son is the same as the subjection of the Son to the
Father.
Thus much with regard to his
profanity towards the Son. Now let us see what he says about the Holy
Spirit. “After Him, we believe,” he says, “on the
Comforter, the Spirit of Truth.” I think it will be plain to all
who come across this passage what object he has in view in thus
perverting the declaration of the faith delivered to us by the Lord, in
his statements concerning the Son and the Father. Though this absurdity
has already been exposed, I will nevertheless endeavour, in few words,
to make plain the aim of his knavery. As in the former case, he avoided
using the name “Father,” that so he might not include the
Son in the eternity of the Father, so he avoided employing the title
Son, that he might not by it suggest His natural affinity to the
Father; so here, too, he refrains from saying “Holy
Spirit,” that he may not by this name acknowledge the majesty of
His glory, and His complete union with the Father and the Son. For
since the appellation of “Spirit,” and that of
“Holy,” are by the Scriptures equally applied to the Father
and the Son (for “God is a Spirit451
,” and “the anointed Lord is the
Spirit before our face452
,” and
“the Lord our God is Holy453
,” and there is
“one Holy, one Lord Jesus Christ454
| 454 Cf. the
response to the words of the Priest at the elevation the Gifts in the
Greek Liturgies. | ”) lest there should, by the use of
these terms, be bred in the minds of his readers some orthodox
conception of the Holy Spirit, such as would naturally arise in them
from His sharing His glorious appellation with the Father and the Son,
for this reason, deluding the ears of the foolish, he changes the words
of the Faith as set forth by God in the delivery of this mystery,
making a way, so to speak, by this sequence, for the entrance of his
impiety against the Holy Spirit. For if he had said, “We believe
in the Holy Spirit,” and “God is a Spirit,” any one
instructed in things divine would have interposed the remark, that if
we are to believe in the Holy Spirit, while God is called a Spirit, He
is assuredly not distinct in nature from that which receives the same
titles in a proper sense. For of all those things which are indicated
not unreally, nor metaphorically, but properly and absolutely, by the
same names, we are necessarily compelled to acknowledge that the nature
also, which is signified by this identity of names, is one and the
same. For this reason it is that, suppressing the name appointed by the
Lord in the formula of the faith, he says, “We believe in the
Comforter.” But I have been taught that this very name is also
applied by the inspired Scripture to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost alike.
For the Son gives the name of “Comforter” equally to
Himself and to the Holy Spirit455
; and the Father,
where He is said to work comfort, surely claims as His own the name of
“Comforter.” For assuredly he Who does the work of a
Comforter does not disdain the name belonging to the work: for David
says to the Father, “Thou, Lord, hast holpen me and comforted
me456
,” and the great Apostle applies to the
Father the same language, when he says, “Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who comforteth us in all our
tribulation457
”; and John, in one of his
Catholic Epistles, expressly gives to the Son the name of Comforter458
| 458 1 S. John ii. 1. (The word is in the
A.V. rendered “advocate.”) | . Nay, more, the Lord Himself, in saying that
another Comforter would be sent us, when speaking of the Spirit,
clearly asserted this title of Himself in the first place. But as there
are two senses of the word παρακαλεῖν459
| 459 From
which is derived the name Paraclete, i.e. Comforter or
Advocate. | ,—one to
beseech, by words and gestures of respect, to induce him to whom
we apply for anything, to feel with us in respect of those things for
which we apply,—the other to comfort, to take remedial
thought for affections of body and soul,—the Holy Scripture
affirms the conception of the Paraclete, in either sense alike, to
belong to the Divine nature. For at one time Paul sets before us by the
word παρακαλεῖν
the healing power of God, as when he says, “God,
Who comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of
Titus460
”; and at another time he uses this word
in its other meaning, when he says, writing to the Corinthians,
“Now we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us;
we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God461
.” Now since these things are so, in
whatever way you understand the title “Paraclete,” when
used of the Spirit, you will not in either of its significations detach
Him from His community in it with the Father and the Son. Accordingly,
he has not been able, even though he wished it, to belittle the glory
of the Spirit by ascribing to Him the very attribute which Holy
Scripture refers also to the Father and to the Son. But in styling Him
“the Spirit of Truth,” Eunomius’ own wish, I suppose,
was to suggest by this phrase subjection, since Christ is the Truth,
and he called Him the Spirit of Truth, as if one should say that He is
a possession and chattel of the Truth, without being aware that God is
called a God of righteousness462
| 462 The
text reads, “that God is called righteousness,” but the
argument seems to require the genitive case. The reference may be
to Ps.
iv. 1. | ; and we certainly do
not understand thereby that God is a possession of righteousness.
Wherefore also, when we hear of the “Spirit of Truth,” we
acquire by that phrase such a conception as befits the Deity, being
guided to the loftier interpretation by the words which follow it. For
when the Lord said “The Spirit of Truth,” He immediately
added “Which proceedeth from the Father463
,” a fact which the voice of the Lord
never asserted of any conceivable thing in creation, not of aught
visible or invisible, not of thrones, principalities, powers, or
dominions, nor of any other name that is named either in this world or
in that which is to come. It is plain then that that, from share in
which all creation is excluded, is something special and peculiar to
uncreated being. But this man bids us believe in “the Guide of
godliness.” Let a man then believe in Paul, and Barnabas, and
Titus, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, and all those by whom we have been
led into the way of the faith. For if we are to believe in “that
which guides us to godliness,” along with the Father and the Son,
all the prophets and lawgivers and patriarchs, heralds, evangelists,
apostles, pastors, and teachers, have equal honour with the Holy
Spirit, as they have been “guides to godliness” to those
who came after them. “Who came into being,” he goes on,
“by the only God through the Only-begotten.” In these words
he gathers up in one head all his blasphemy. Once more he calls the
Father “only God,” who employs the Only-begotten as an
instrument for the production of the Spirit. What shadow of such a
notion did he find in Scripture, that he ventures upon this assertion?
by deduction from what premises did he bring his profanity to such a
conclusion as this? Which of the Evangelists says it? what apostle?
what prophet? Nay, on the contrary every scripture divinely inspired,
written by the afflatus of the Spirit, attests the Divinity of the
Spirit. For example (for it is better to prove my position from the
actual testimonies), those who receive power to become children of God
bear witness to the Divinity of the Spirit. Who knows not that
utterance of the Lord which tells us that they who are born of the
Spirit are the children of God? For thus He expressly ascribes the
birth of the children of God to the Spirit, saying, that as that which
is born of the flesh is flesh, so that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. But as many as are born of the Spirit are called the children
of God464
. So also when the Lord by breathing upon His
disciples had imparted to them the Holy Spirit, John says, “Of
His fulness have all we received465
.” And that
“in Him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead466
,” the mighty Paul attests: yea,
moreover, through the prophet Isaiah it is attested, as to the
manifestation of the Divine appearance vouchsafed to him, when he saw
Him that sat “on the throne high and lifted up467
;” the older tradition, it is true, says
that it was the Father Who appeared to him, but the evangelist John
refers the prophecy to our Lord, saying, touching those of the Jews who
did not believe the words uttered by the prophet concerning the Lord,
“These things said Esaias, when he saw His glory and spoke of
Him468
.” But the mighty Paul attributes the
same passage to the Holy Spirit in his speech made to the Jews at Rome,
when he says, “Well spoke the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet
concerning you, saying, Hearing ye shall hear and shall not
understand469
,” showing, in my opinion, by Holy
Scripture itself, that every specially divine vision, every theophany,
every word uttered in the Person of God, is to be understood to refer
to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Hence when David says,
“they provoked God in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the
desert470
,” the apostle refers to the Holy Spirit
the despite done by the Israelites to God, in these terms:
“Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, Harden not your hearts, as
in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness; when
your fathers tempted me471
,” and goes on
to refer all that the prophecy refers to God, to the Person of the Holy
Ghost. Those who keep repeating against us the phrase “three
Gods,” because we hold these views, have perhaps not yet learnt how to
count. For if the Father and the Son are not divided into duality, (for
they are, according to the Lord’s words, One, and not Two472
) and if the Holy Ghost is also one, how can
one added to one be divided into the number of three Gods? Is it not
rather plain that no one can charge us with believing in the number of
three Gods, without himself first maintaining in his own doctrine a
pair of Gods? For it is by being added to two that the one completes
the triad of Gods. But what room is there for the charge of tritheism
against those by whom one God is worshipped, the God expressed by the
Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost?
Let us however resume
Eunomius’ statement in its entirety. “Having come into
being from the only God through the Only-begotten, this Spirit
also—” What proof is there of the statement that
“this Spirit also” is one of the things that were made by
the Only-begotten? They will say of course that “all things were
made by Him473
,” and that in the term “all
things” “this Spirit also” is included. Our answer to
them shall be this, All things were made by Him, that were made. Now
the things that were made, as Paul tells us, were things visible and
invisible, thrones, authorities, dominions, principalities, powers, and
among those included under the head of thrones and powers are reckoned
by Paul the Cherubim and Seraphim474
| 474 Cf. Col. i. 16; but the enumeration varies considerably. | : so far does the
term “all things” extend. But of the Holy Spirit, as being
above the nature of things that have come into being, Paul said not a
word in his enumeration of existing things, not indicating to us by his
words either His subordination or His coming into being; but just as
the prophet calls the Holy Spirit “good,” and
“right,” and “guiding475
| 475 The
last of these epithets is from Ps. li. 14 (πνεῦμα
ἡγεμονικὸν, the “Spiritus principalis” of the Vulgate,
the “free spirit” of the English version); the “right
spirit” of ver.
12 being also applied by S. Gregory to the Holy Spirit, while the
epithet “good” is from Ps. cxlii. 10. | ” (indicating by the word
“guiding” the power of control), even so the apostle
ascribes independent authority to the dignity of the Spirit, when he
affirms that He works all in all as He wills476
.
Again, the Lord makes manifest the Spirit’s independent power and
operation in His discourse with Nicodemus, when He says, “The
Spirit breatheth where He willeth477
.” How is
it then that Eunomius goes so far as to define that He also is one of
the things that came into being by the Son, condemned to eternal
subjection. For he describes Him as “once for all made
subject,” enthralling the guiding and governing Spirit in I know
not what form of subjection. For this expression of
“subjection” has many significations in Holy Scripture, and
is understood and used with many varieties of meaning. For the Psalmist
says that even irrational nature is put in subjection478
,
and brings under the same term those who are overcome in war479
, while the apostle bids servants to be in
subjection to their own masters480
, and that those who
are placed over the priesthood should have their children in
subjection481
, as their disorderly conduct brings
discredit upon their fathers, as in the case of the sons of Eli the
priest. Again, he speaks of the subjection of all men to God, when we
all, being united to one another by the faith, become one body of the
Lord Who is in all, as the subjection of the Son to the Father, when
the adoration paid to the Son by all things with one accord, by things
in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, redounds to
the glory of the Father; as Paul says elsewhere, “To Him every
knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things
under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father482
.” For when
this takes place, the mighty wisdom of Paul affirms that the Son, Who
is in all, is subject to the Father by virtue of the subjection of
those in whom He is. What kind of “subjection once for all”
Eunomius asserts of the Holy Spirit, it is thus impossible to learn
from the phrase which he has thrown out,—whether he means the
subjection of irrational creatures, or of captives, or of servants, or
of children who are kept in order, or of those who are saved by
subjection. For the subjection of men to God is salvation for those who
are so made subject, according to the voice of the prophet, who says
that his soul is subject to God, since of Him cometh salvation by
subjection483
, so that subjection is the means of
averting perdition. As therefore the help of the healing art is sought
eagerly by the sick, so is subjection by those who are in need of
salvation. But of what life does the Holy Spirit, that quickeneth all
things, stand in need, that by subjection He should obtain salvation
for Himself? Since then it is not on the strength of any Divine
utterance that he asserts such an attribute of the Spirit, nor yet is
it as a consequence of probable arguments that he has launched this
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, it must be plain at all events to
sensible men that he vents his impiety against Him without any warrant
whatsoever, unsupported as it is by any authority from Scripture or by
any logical consequence.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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