Augustine: Earlier Writings
FAITH AND THE GREED 365
Spirit, since whatever is made holy is made holy in order to abide for ever. And there is no doubt that the word sanctity is derived from sancire, to make holy. Above all the asserters of this opinion make use of this testimony from Scripture: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. For God is a Spirit" (John 3:6; John 4:24). Here he speaks of our regeneration which is not after the flesh according to Adam, but after the Holy Spirit according to Christ. If, they say, it is the Holy Spirit that is spoken of in the words, God is a Spirit, it ought to be observed that what is said is that God is a Spirit, not that the Spirit is God. Hence the deity of the Father and the Son is here called God, that is the Holy Spirit. Besides, there is this other testimony where the apostle John says that God is love. He does not say love is God but God is love, so that deity may be understood to be love. There is of course no mention of the Holy Spirit in that passage where many things are linked together: "All things are yours, and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's" (I Cor. 3:21, 23); and in the other passage: "The head of the woman is the man, and the head of the man is Christ and the head of Christ is God" (I Cor. 11:3). But they say that this is due to the fact that where things are linked together the link that holds them together is not usually included among them. Hence those who read with close attention seem to recognize the Trinity in the passage where it is written: "Of him and through him and in him are all things." "Of him" points to him who owes existence to none; "through him" points to the Mediator; and "in him" points to him who contains all things and binds them together.
20. This view is contradicted by those who think that that communion, whether we call it Deity or Love or Charity, is not a substance. They want to have the Holy Spirit explained according to his substance, and do not understand that God could not be said to be love unless love were a substance. They are influenced by ordinary corporeal experience. If two bodies are joined together so as to be set side by side, the junction is not a body. For if the two things which had been joined together are separated, nothing else remains. The "junction" cannot be understood to have moved away, as the bodies parted company.
Let such people make for themselves a clean heart so that they may be able to see that there cannot be in the substance of God both substance and accidents. All that can be understood to be there is substance. It is easy to speak about such things and even to believe them, but they cannot be seen as they are save by the