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    • Proof of the absurdity of the refusal to glorify the Spirit, from the comparison of things glorified in creation.
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    Chapter XXIV.

    Proof of the absurdity of the refusal to glorify the Spirit, from the comparison of things glorified in creation.

    55.  Furthermore man is “crowned with glory and honour,”1188

    1188 Ps. viii. 5.

    and “glory, honour and peace” are laid up by promise “to every man that worketh good.”1189

    1189 Rom. ii. 10.

      There is moreover a special and peculiar glory for Israelites “to whom,” it is said “pertaineth the adoption and the glory…and the service,”1190

    1190 Rom. ix. 4.

    and the Psalmist speaks of a certain glory of his own, “that my glory may sing praise to Thee1191

    1191 Ps. xxix. 12.

    ;” and again “Awake up my glory”1192

    1192 Ps. lvii. 8.

    and according to the Apostle there is a certain glory of sun and moon and stars,1193

    1193 cf. 1 Cor. xv. 41.

    and “the ministration of condemnation is glorious.”1194

    1194 2 Cor. iii. 9.

      While then so many things are glorified, do you wish the Spirit alone of all things to be unglorified?  Yet the Apostle says “the ministration of the Spirit is glorious.”1195

    1195 2 Cor. iii. 8.

      How then can He Himself be unworthy of glory?  How according to the Psalmist can the glory of the just man be great1196

    1196 cf. Ps. xxi. 5.

    and according to you the glory of the Spirit none?  How is there not a plain peril from such arguments of our bringing on ourselves the sin from which there is no escape?  If the man who is being saved by works of righteousness glorifies even them that fear the Lord1197

    1197 cf. Ps. xv.

    much less would he deprive the Spirit of the glory which is His due.

    Grant, they say, that He is to be glorified, but not with the Father and the Son.  But what reason is there in giving up the place appointed by the Lord for the Spirit, and inventing some other?  What reason is there for robbing of His share of glory Him Who is everywhere associated with the Godhead; in the confession of the Faith, in the baptism of redemption, in the working of miracles, in the indwelling of the saints, in the graces bestowed on obedience?  For there is not even one single gift which reaches creation without the Holy Ghost;1198

    1198 cf. Matt. xxviii. 19; 1 Cor. xii. 11; Rom. viii. 11; 1 Pet. i. 2.

    when not even a single word can be spoken in defence of Christ except by them that are aided by the Spirit, as we have learnt in the Gospels from our Lord and Saviour.1199

    1199 Matt. x. 19, 20.

      And I know not whether any one who has been partaker of the Holy Spirit will consent that we should overlook all this, forget His fellowship in all things, and tear the Spirit asunder from the Father and the Son.  Where then are we to take Him and rank Him?  With the creature?  Yet all the creature is in bondage, but the Spirit maketh free.  “And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”1200

    1200 2 Cor. iii. 17.

      Many arguments might be adduced to them that it is unseemly to coordinate the Holy Spirit with created nature, but for the present I will pass them by.  Were I indeed to bring forward, in a manner befitting the dignity of the discussion, all the proofs always available on our side, and so overthrow the objections of our opponents, a lengthy dissertation would be required, and my readers might be worn out by my prolixity.  I therefore propose to reserve this matter for a special treatise,1201

    1201 Mr. C.F.H. Johnston conjectures the allusion to be to Hom. xxiv.  “Contra Sabellianos et Arium et Anomœos.”

    and to apply myself to the points now more immediately before us.

    56.  Let us then examine the points one by one.  He is good by nature, in the same way as the Father is good, and the Son is good; the creature on the other hand shares in goodness by choosing the good.  He knows “The deep things of God;”1202

    1202 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11.

    the creature receives the manifestation of ineffable things through the Spirit.  He quickens together with God, who produces and preserves all things alive,1203

    1203 In 1 Tim. vi. 13, St. Paul writes τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ζωοποιοῦντος πάντα.  In the text St. Basil writes τὰ πάντα ζωογονοῦντος.  The latter word is properly distinguished from the former as meaning not to make alive after death, but to engender alive.  In Luke xvii. 33, it is rendered in A.V. “preserve.”  In Acts vii. 19, it is “to the end they might not live.”  On the meaning of ζωογονεῖν in the lxx. and the Socinian arguments based on its use in Luke xvii. 33, cf. Pearson, On the Creed, Art. V. note to p. 257 Ed. 1676.

    and together with the Son, who gives life.  “He that raised up Christ from the dead,” it is said, “shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the spirit that dwelleth in you;”1204

    1204 Rom. viii. 11.

    and again “my sheep hear my voice,…and I give unto them eternal life;”1205

    1205 John x. 27–28.

    but “the Spirit” also, it is said, “giveth life,”1206

    1206 2 Cor. iii. 6.

    and again “the Spirit,” it is said, “is life, because of righteousness.”1207

    1207 Rom. viii. 10.

      And the Lord bears witness that “it is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.”1208

    1208 John vi. 63.

      How then shall we alienate the Spirit from His quickening power, and make Him belong to lifeless nature?  Who is so contentious, who is so utterly without the heavenly gift,1209

    1209 cf. Heb. vi. 4.

    and unfed by God’s good words, who is so devoid of part and lot in eternal hopes, as to sever the Spirit from the Godhead and rank Him with the creature?

    57.  Now it is urged that the Spirit is in us as a gift from God, and that the gift is not reverenced with the same honour as that which is attributed to the giver.  The Spirit is a gift of God, but a gift of life, for the law of “the Spirit of life,” it is said, “hath made” us “free;”1210

    1210 Rom. viii. 2.

    and a gift of power, for “ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”1211

    1211 Acts i. 8.

      Is He on this account to be lightly esteemed?  Did not God also bestow His Son as a free gift to mankind?  “He that spared not His own Son,” it is said, “but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”1212

    1212 Rom. viii. 32.

      And in another place, “that we might truly know the things that are freely given us of God,”1213

    1213 1 Cor. ii. 12.

    in reference to the mystery of the Incarnation.  It follows then that the maintainers of such arguments, in making the greatness of God’s loving kindness an occasion of blasphemy, have really surpassed the ingratitude of the Jews.  They find fault with the Spirit because He gives us freedom to call God our Father.  “For God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into” our “hearts crying Abba, Father,”1214

    1214 Gal. iv. 6.

    that the voice of the Spirit may become the very voice of them that have received him.

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