respecting the Holy Spirit, according to theis the Son of God by nature,—7.e. born of the
THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [Book XV.
abideth for ever. Some, again, to escape saying that the only-begotten Word is the Son of the counsel or will of God, have affirmed the same Word to be the counsel or will itself of the Father. But it is better in my judgment to say counsel of counsel, and will of will, as substance of substance, wisdom of wisdom, that we may not be led into that absurdity, which we have refuted already, and say that the Son makes the Father wise or willing, if the Father has not in His own substance either counsel or wil]. It was certainly a sharp answer that somebody gave to the heretic, who most subtly asked him whether God begat the Son willingly or unwillingly, in order that if he said unwillingly, it would follow most absurdly that God was miserable; but if willingly, he would forthwith infer, as though by an invincible reason, that at which he was aiming, vez. that He was the Son, not of His nature, but of His will. But that other, with great wakefulness, demanded of him in turn, whether God the Father was God willingly or unwillingly; in order that if he answered unwillingly, that misery would follow, which to believe of God is sheer madness; and if he said willingly, it would be replied to him, Then He is God too by His own will, not by His nature. What remained, then, except that he should hold his peace, and discern that he was himself bound by his own question in an insoluble bond? 4 But if | any person in the Trinity is also to be speci- |
Spirit. For He is both said and read in countless places to be so,—the only-begotten Son of God the Father; as that what the apostle says of God the Father is true too: '* Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His own love.''* He did not say, ''of His own Son." If He had so said, He would have said it most truly, just as He did say it most truly, because He has often said it ; but He says, '' the Son of His own love.'' Therefore He is the Son also of the Holy Spirit, if there is in that Trinity no love in God except the Holy Spirit. And if this is most absurd, it remains that the Holy Spirit is not alone therein love, but is specially so called for the reasons I have sufficiently set forth; and that the words, ''Son of His own love,'' mean nothing else than His own beloved Son,—the Son, in short, of His own substance. For the love inthe Father, which is in His ineffably simple nature, is nothing else than His very nature and substance itself, —as we have already often said, and are not ashamed of often repeating. And hence the **Son of His love,'' is none other than He who is born of His substance.
CHAP. 20.—AGAINST EUNOMIUS, SAYING THAT THE SON OF GOD IS THE SON, NOT OF HIS NATURE, BUT OF HIS WILL. EPILOGUE TO WHAT HAS BEEN SAID ALREADY,
38. Wherefore the logic of Eunomius, from whom the Eunomian heretics sprang, is ridic-
ally called the will of God, this name, like | love, is better suited to the Holy Spirit; for | ulous. For when he could not understand, and would not believe, that the only-begotten Word of God, by which all things were made, is the Son of God by nature,—7.e. born of the substance of the Father,—he alleged that He was not the Son of His own nature or substance or essence, but the Son of the will of God; so as to mean to assert that the will by which he begat the Son was something accidental [and optional] to God,—to wit, in that way that we ourselves sometimes will someae what else is love, except will?
39. I see that my argument in this book respecting the Holy Spirit, according to the Holy Scripture, is quite enough for faithful men who know already that the Holy Spirit is God, and not of another substance, nor less than the Father and the Son,—as we have shown to be true in the former books, according to the same Scriptures. We have reasoned also from the creature which God made, and, as far as we could, have warned those who demand a reason on such subjects to behold and understand His invisible things, so far as they could, by those things which are made, and especially by the rational or intellectual creature which is made after the image of God; through which glass, so to say, they might discern as far as they could, if they could, the Trinity which is God, in our own memory, understanding, will. Which three things, if any one intelligently regards as by nature divinely appointed in his own mind, and remembers by memory, contemplates by thing which before we did not will, as though it was not for these very things that our nature is perceived to be changeable,—a thing which far be it from us to believe of God.
For it is written, '* Many are the thoughts in the heart of man, but the counsel of the Lord abideth for ever," ? forno other reason except that we may understand or believe that as God is eternal, so is His counsel for eternity, and therefore unchangeable, as He himself is. And what is said of thoughts can most truly be said also of the will: there are many wills in the heart of man, but the will of the Lord
1 Col.i. 23. 2 Prov. xix, 21.
3 Rom, i. 20,