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| Chapter XVII. That the glory and honour of Christ is not to be ascribed to the Holy Ghost in such a way as to deny that it proceeds from Christ Himself, as if all that excellency, which was in Him, was another's and proceeded from another source.
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Chapter XVII.
That the glory and honour of Christ is not to be
ascribed to the Holy Ghost in such a way as to deny that it proceeds
from Christ Himself, as if all that excellency, which was in Him, was
another’s and proceeded from another source.
You say then in another
discussion, nay rather in another blasphemy of yours, “and He
separated2630
| 2630 Separavit
(Petschenig). | the Spirit from
the Divine nature Who created His humanity. For Scripture says that
that which was born of Mary is of the Holy Ghost.2631
Who also filled with righteousness
(justitia) that which was created: for it says ‘He appeared in
the flesh, was justified in the Spirit.’2632
Again: Who made Him also to be feared
by the devils: ‘For I,’ He says, ‘by the Spirit of
God cast out devils.’2633
Who also made
His flesh a temple. ‘For I saw His spirit descending like a dove
and abiding upon Him.’2634
Again: Who
granted to Him His ascension into Heaven. For it says, “Giving a
commandment to the apostles whom He had chosen, by the Holy Ghost He
was taken up.”2635
Finally that it
was He who granted such glory to Christ.” The whole of your
blasphemy then consists in this: that Christ had nothing of Himself:
nor did He, a mere man, as you say, receive anything from the Word,
i.e., the Son of God; but everything in Him was the gift of the Spirit.
If then we can show that all that which you refer to the Spirit, is His
own, what remains but that we prove that He whom you therefore would
have taken to be a man, because as you say everything which He has is
another’s, is therefore God, because everything which He has is
His own? And indeed we will prove this not only by discussion and
argument, but by the voice of Divinity Itself: for nothing testifies of
God better than things divine. And because nothing knows itself better
than the very glory of God, we believe nothing on the subject of God
with greater right than those writings in which God Himself is His own
witness. First then, as to this that you say that the Holy Spirit
created His humanity; we might take it simply, if we could acknowledge
that you had not brought it forward in the interests of unbelief. For
neither do we deny that the flesh of the Lord was conceived by the Holy
Ghost: but we assert that the body was conceived by the co-operation of
the Holy Ghost in such a way that we can say that His Humanity2636
was created for Himself by the Son of
God, as the Holy Spirit Itself says in holy Scripture, testifying that
“Wisdom hath builded for Itself a house.”2637
You see then that that which was
conceived by the Holy Ghost was built and perfected by the Son of God:
not that the work of the Son of God is one thing, and the work of the
Holy Ghost another: but that through the unity of the Godhead and glory
the operation of the Spirit is the building of the Son of God; and the
building of the Son of God is the co-operation of the Holy Ghost. And
so we read not only that the Holy Ghost came upon the Virgin, but also
that the power of the Most High overshadowed the Virgin; that since
Wisdom Itself is the fulness of the Godhead, no one might doubt that
when Wisdom built Itself a house all the fulness of the Godhead was
present. But the wretched hardness of your blasphemy, while it tries to
sever Christ from the Son of God, fails to see that it is entirely
severing the nature of the Godhead from Itself. Unless perhaps you
believe that the house is therefore built for Him by the Holy Ghost
because He Himself was insufficient and incapable of building for
Himself an house. But it is as absurd as it is wild, to believe that
He, whom we believe to have created the whole universe of things
heavenly and earthly by His will, was unable to build for Himself a
body: especially as the power of the Holy Ghost is His power, and the
Divinity and Glory of the Trinity are so united and inseparable, that
we cannot think of anything at all in One Person of the Trinity, which
can be separated from the fulness of the Godhead. Therefore when this
is laid down and grasped; viz., that according to the faith of holy
Scripture, when the Holy Ghost came upon (the Virgin) and the power of
the Most High overshadowed her, Wisdom builded Itself an house; the
rest of the slanders of your blasphemy come to nothing. For neither is
it doubtful that He made all things by Himself and in Himself, in whose
name and faith, the faith even of believers can do anything. For
neither did He need the aid of another, as neither have they needed it,
who have trusted in His power. And so as for your assertions that He
was justified by the Spirit, and that the Spirit made Him to be feared
by the devils, and that His flesh became the temple of the Holy Ghost,
and that He was taken up by the Spirit into heaven, they are all
blasphemous and wild: not because we are to believe that in all these
things which He Himself did, the unity and cooperation of the Spirit
was wanting—since the Godhead is never wanting to Itself, and the
power of the Trinity was ever present in the Saviour’s
works—but because you will have it that the Holy Ghost gave
assistance to the Lord Jesus Christ as if He had been feeble and
powerless; and that He granted those
things to Him, which He was unable to procure
for Himself. Learn then from sacred witnesses to believe God, and not
to mingle falsehood with truth: for the subject does not admit it, and
common sense abhors the idea of mingling the notions of the spirit of
the devil with the witnesses that are Divine.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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