into all truth. For He shall not speak of
ON THE TRINITY.
Cuap. IV.]
endeavoring to take these texts according to the form of a servant, and so mis-interpret- | ing them, are troubled. this, the rule in question is to be observed, whereby the Son is not less, but it is simply intimated that He is of the Father, in which words not His inequality but His birth is declared.
to come. He shall glorify me; for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."' And except He had immediately gone on to say after this, '' All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you;''3 it might, perhaps, have been believed that the Holy Spirit was so born of Christ, as Christ is of the Father. Since He had said of Himself, '' My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me;" but of the Holy Spirit,** For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall He speak;" and, '' For He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." But because He has rendered the reason why He said, '' He shall receive of mine'? (for He says, '* All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that He shall take of mine''); it remains that the Holy Spirit be understood to have of that which is the Father's, as the Son also hath. And how can this be, unless according to that which we have said above, ** But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me''?* He is said, therefore, not to speak of Himself, in that He proceedeth from the Father; and as it does not follow that the Son is less because He said,
And to prevent |
CHAP. 2.—THAT SOME WAYS OF SPEAKING CONCERNING THE SON ARE TO BE UNDERSTOOD ACCORDING TO EITHER RULE,
4. There are, then, some things in the sacred books, as I began by saying, so put, that it is doubtful to which they are to be referred: whether to that rule whereby the Son is less on account of His having taken the creature; or whether to that whereby it is intimated that although equal, yet He is of the Father. And in my opinion, if this is in such way doubtful, that which it really is can neither be explained nor discerned, then such passages may without danger be understood according to either rule, as that, for instance,
My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me."* For this may both be taken according to the form of a servant, as we have already treated it in the former book;? or according to the form of God, in which He is in such way equal to the Father, that He is yet of the Father. For according to the form of God, as the Son is not one and His life another, but the life itself is the Son; so the Son is not one and His doctrine another, but the doctrine itself is the Son. And hence, as the text, "* He hath given life to the Son,"' is no otherwise to be understood than, He hath begotten the Son, who is life; so also when it is said, He hath given doctrine to the Son, it may be rightly understood to mean, He hath begotten the Son, who is doctrine; so that, when it is said, ** My doctrine is not mine, but His who sent me,"' it is so to be understood as if it were, Iam not from ay self, but from Him who sent me.
Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do" (for He has not said this according to the form of a servant, but according to the form of God, as we have already shown, and these words do 'not set Him forth as less than, but as of the
Father), so it is not brought to pass that the Holy Spirit is less, because it is said of Him, "For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak;" for the words belong to Him as fr7o-- ceeding from the Father. But whereas both the Son is of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, why both are not called sons, and both not said to be begotten, but the former is called the one only-begotten Son, and the latter, vz. the Holy Spirit, neither son nor begotten, because if begotten, then certainly a son, we will discuss in another place, if God shall grant, and so far as He shall grant.
CHAP. 3.—SOME THINGS CONCERNING THE HOLY
SPIRIT ARE TO BE UNDERSTOOD ACCORDING TO THE ONE RULE ONLY.
5. For even of the Holy Spirit, of whom it is not said, ''He emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant;"' yet the Lord Himself says, '* Howbeit, when He the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear that shall He speak; and He will show you things
CHAP. 4.—-THE GLORIFICATION OF THE SON BY THE FATHER DOES NOT PROVE INEQUALITY.
6. But here also let them wake up if they can, who have thought this, too, to be a testimony on their side, to show that the Father ohn xvi. 13-15. 4 John xv. 26. elow, Bk. XV. c. 25.
t John vii. 16. 2 See above, Book I. c. 12. 10
ST. AUGUS DIN: {Book II.
40 THE WORKS OF
He was sent is greater than the Son, because the Son hath said, '' Father, glorify me.'' Spirit also glorifies Him. Pray, is the Spirit, too, greater than He? account the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son, because He shall receive of that which is the world and was in the world.
For consider that, too, which is written in the
Why, the Holy |therefore thither, where He already was.
Moreover, if on that} prophet, that God said, *' Do not I fill heaven and earth?"5 If this is said of the Son (for some will have it understood that the Son Son's, and shall therefore receive of that| Himself spoke either by the prophets or inthe which is the Son's because all things that the Father has are the Son's also; it is evident that when the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son, the Father glorifies the Son. Whence it may be perceived that all things that the Father hath are not only of the Son, but also of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is able to glorify the Son, whom the Father glorifies. But if he who glorifies is greater than he whom he glorifies, let them allow that those are equal who mutually glorify each other. But it is written, also, that the Son glorifies the Father; for He says, "' I have glorified Thee on the eatthe* Eruly. let: them "beware lest: 'the Holy Spirit be thought greater than both, because He glorifies the Son whom the Father glorifies, while it is not written that He Himself is glorified either by the Father or by the Son.
prophets), whither was He sent except to the place where He already was? For He who says, "'I fill heaven and earth,'' was everywhere. But if it is said of the Father, where could He be without His own word and without His own wisdom, which ''reacheth from one end to another mightily, and sweetly ordereth all things?''® But He cannot be anywhere without His own Spirit. Therefore, if God is everywhere, His Spirit also is everywhere. 'Therefore, the Holy Spirit, too, was sent thither, where He already was. For he, too, who finds no place to which he might go from the presence of God, and who says, "* If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I shall go down into hell, behold, Thou art there;'' wishing it to be understood that God is present everywhere, named in the previous verse His Spirit; for He says, '* Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence ?''?
CHAP. 5.—-THE SON AND HOLY SPIRIT ARE NOT THEREFORE LESS BECAUSE SENT. THE SON IS SENT ALSO BY HIMSELF. OF THE SENDING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
8. For this reason, then, if both the Son and the Holy Spirit are sent thither where they were, we must inquire, how that sending, whether of the Son or of the Holy Spirit, is to be understood; for of the Father alone, we nowhere read that He is sent. Now, of the Son, the apostle writes thus: '* But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.''® '' He sent,' he says, '*' His Son, made of a woman." And by this term, woman,? what Catholic does not know that he did not wish to signify the privation of virginity; but, according to a Hebraism, the difference of sex? When, therefore, he says, *'God sent His Son, made of a woman,"' he sufficiently shows that the Son was ''sent" in this very way, in that He was '' made of a woman." Therefore, in that He was born of God, He was in the world; but in that He was born of
7. But being proved wrong so far, men betake themselves to saying, that he who sends is greater than he who is sent: therefore the Father is greater than the Son, because the Son continually speaks of Himself as being sent by the Father; and the Father is also greater than the Holy Spirit, because Jesus has said of the Spirit, '' Whom the Father will send in my name;''? and the Holy Spirit is less than both, because both the Father sends Him, as we have said, and the Son, when He says, ** But if I depart, I will send
Him unto you." I first ask, then, in this inquiry, whence and whither the Son was sent. "*T,"' He says, *' came forth from the Father, and am come into the world." Therefore, to be sent, is to come forth forth from the Father, and to come into the world. What, then, is that which the same evangelist says concerning Him, '' He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not;'' and then he adds, '* He came unto His own?''4 Certainiy He was sent thither, whither He came; but if He was sent into the world, because He came forth
Mary, He was sent and came into the world. Moreover, He could not be sent by the Father without the Holy Spirit, not only because the Father, when He sent Him, that is, when He made Him of a woman, is certainly understood not to have so made Him without His
own Spirit; but also because it is most plainly from the Father, then He both came into the} and expressly said in the Gospel in answer to the Virgin Mary, when she asked of the angel, t John xvii. 1, 4. 3 John xvi, 7, 28.
2 John xiv. 26. 4 John i. to, rx,
6 Wisd. vili. 1. 5 Jer. xxiii. 24. 9 Mulier. 7 Ps. cxxxix. 8, 7. 8 Gal. iv. 4, 5.
ON THE TRINITY. AI
CHap. V.]
How shall this be?'' '"*' The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the.
the eternal Son might thereby be sent and might appear in the flesh in the fullness of time? But assuredly it was in that Word of God itself which was in the beginning with God and was God, namely, in the wisdom itself of God, apart from time, at what time that wisdom must needs appear in the flesh. Therefore, since without any commencement of time, the Word was in the beginning, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, it was in the Word itself without any time, at what time the Word was to be made flesh and dwell among us. And when this fullness of time had come, ''God sent His Son, made of a woman,''? that is, made in time, that the Incarnate Word might appear to men; while it was in that Word Himself, apart from time, at what time this was to be done; for the order of times is in the eternal wisdom of God.without time. Since, then, that the Son should appear in the flesh was
Highest shall overshadow thee.''* And Matthew says, "* She was found with child of the
Holy Ghost."? Although, too, in the prophet Isaiah, Christ Himself is understood to say of
His own future advent, *'And now the Lord God and His Spirit hath sent me.??3 g. Perhaps some one may wish to 'drive us to say, that the Son is sent also by Himself, because the conception and childbirth of Mary is the working of the Trinity, by whose act of creating all things are created. And how, he will. go on to say, has the Father sent Him, if He sent Himself? To whom I answer first, by asking him to tell me, if he can, in what manner the Father hath sanctified Him, if
He hath sanctified Himself? For the same Lord says both; ''Say ye of Him," He says, ''whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God;" + while in another wrought by both the Father and the Son, it is fitly said that He who appeared in that flesh place He says, °'And for their sake I sanctify myself.''*® I ask, also, in what manner the Father delivered Him, if He delivered Himself? For the Apostle Paul says both: **'Who," he says, °' spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all;"® while elsewhere he says of the Saviour Himself, '"* Who loved me, and delivered Himself for me."? He will reply, I suppose, if he has a right sense in these things, Because the will of the Father and the Son is one, and their working indivisible. In like manner, then, let him understand the incarnation and nativity of the Virgin, wherein the Son is understood as was sent, and that He who did not appear in it, sent Him; because those things which are transacted outwardly before the bodily eyes have their existence from the inward structure (apparatu) of the. spiritual nature, and on that account are fitly said,to..be sent. Further, that form of man which He took is the person of the Son, not also of the Father; on which account the invisible Father, together with the Son, who with the Father is invisible, is said to have sent the same Son by making Him visible. But if He became visible in such way as to cease to be invisible with the Father, that is, if the substance of the invisible Word were turned by a change and transition into a visible creature, then the Son would be so understood to be sent by the sent, to have been wrought by one and the same operation of the Father and of the Son indivisibly; the Holy Spirit certainly not being thence excluded, of whom it is expressly said,
Father, that He would be found to be only sent; not also, with the Father, sending. But since He so took the form of a servant, as that the unchangeable form of God remained, it is clear that that which became apparent in the Son was done by the Father and the Son not being apparent; that is, that by the invisible Father, with the invisible Son, the same Son Himself was sent so as to be visible. Why, therefore, does He say, *' Neither came I of myself?''? This, we may now say, is said according to the form of a servant, in the same way as it is said, "* I judge no man."' "
was found with child by the Holy Ghost." For perhaps our meaning will be more plainly unfolded, if we ask in what manner God sent His Son. He commanded that He should come, and He, complying with the commandment, came. Did Hé* then: :request, or did He only suggest? But whichever of these it was, certainly it was done by a word, and. the. Word. of God is the Son of God Himself, Wherefore, since the Father sent Him™ by a word, His being sent was the work of both the Father and His Word; therefore the same Son was sent by the Father and the Son, because the Son Himself is the Word of the Father. For who would embrace sO impious an opinion as to think the Father to have uttered a word in time, in order that to. If, therefore, He is said to be sent, in so far as He appeared outwardly in the bodily creature, who inwardly in His spiritual nature is always hidden from the eyes of mortals, it is now easy to understand also of the Holy
3 Isa. xlvili, 16, 6 Rom, viii. 32. 2 Matt. i. 18. t Luke i. 34, 35.
5 John xvii. 19. 4 John x. 36. 7 Gal. ii. 20.
8 John i. 1, 2, 14. 9 Gal. iv. 4. 10 John viii. 42, 15.