** Behold the Lamb of God,''? but also Johnwritten, that the Father is greater than the
42 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [Boox II.
changeable; so that these things were not made of the creature, but He himself was turned and changed first into one and then into another, as water is changed into ice. But these things appeared at the seasons at which they ought to have appeared, the creature serving the Creator, and being changed and converted at the command of Him who remains immutably in Himself, in order to signify and manifest Him in such way as it was fit He should be signified and manifested to mortal men. Accordingly, although that dove is called the Spirit:? and in speaking of that fire, '' There appeared unto them," he says, "'cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them; and they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance;''® in order to show that the Spirit was manifested by that fire, as by the dove; yet we cannot call the Holy Spirit both God and a dove, or both God and fire, in the same way as we call the Son both God and man; nor as we call the Son the Lamb of God; which not only John the Baptist says,
Spirit why He too is said to be sent. For in due time a certain outward appearance of the creature was wrought, wherein the Holy Spirit might be visibly shown; whether when He descended upon the Lord Himself in a bodily shape as a dove,*or when, ten days having past since His ascension, on the day of Pentecost a sound came suddenly from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and cloven tongues like as of fire were seen upon them, and it sat upon each of them.? This operation, visibly exhibited, and presented to mortal eyes, is called the sending of the Holy Spirit; not that His very substance appeared, in which He himself also is invisible and unchangeable, like the Father and the Son, but that the hearts of men, touched by things seen outwardly, might be turned from the manifestation in time of Him as coming to His hidden eternity as ever present.
CHAP, 6.—THE CREATURE IS NOT SO TAKEN BY
THE HOLY SPIRIT AS FLESH IS BY THE WORD.
11. It is, then, for this reason nowhere written, that the Father is greater than the
Behold the Lamb of God,''? but also John the Evangelist sees the Lamb slain in the Apocalypse." For that prophetic vision was not shown to bodily eyes through bodily forms, but in the spirit through spiritual images of bodily things. But whosoever saw that dove and that fire, saw them with their eyes. Although it may perhaps be disputed concerning the fire, whether it was seen by the eyes or in the spirit, on account of the form of the sentence. For the text does not say, They saw cloven tongues like fire, but,
Holy Spirit, or that the Holy Spirit is less than God the Father, because the creature in which the Holy Spirit was to appear was not taken in the same way as the Son of man was taken, as the form in which the person of the Word of God Himself should be set forth; not that He might possess the word of God, as other holy and wise men have possessed it, but "' above His fellows;"3 not certainly that He possessed the word more than they, so as to be of more surpassing wisdom than the rest were, but that He was the very Word Himself. For the word in the flesh is one thing, and the Word made flesh is another; 7.e. the word in man is one thing, the Word that is man is another, For flesh is put for man, where it is said, ''The Word was made flesh;''* and again, ''And all flesh shall see the salvation of God." *® For it does not mean flesh without soul and without mind; but '' all flesh,'' is the same as if it were said, every man. The creature, then, in which the Holy Spirit should appear, was not so taken, as that flesh and human form were taken, of the Virgin Mary. For the Spirit did not beatify the dove, or the wind, or the fire, and join them for ever to Himself and to His person in unity and "' fashion.''*® Nor, again, is the nature of the Holy Spirit mutable and
There appeared to them."? But we are not wont to say with the same meaning, It appeared to me; as we say, I saw. And in those spiritual visions of corporeal images the usual expressions are, both, It appeared to me; and, I saw: but in those things which are shown to the eyes through express corporeal forms, the common expression is not, It appeared to me; but, I saw. There may, therefore, be a question raised respecting that fire, how it was seen; whether within in the spirit as it were outwardly, or really outwardly before the eyes of the flesh. But of that dove, which is said to have descended in a bodily form, no one ever doubted that it was seen by the eyes, Nor, again, as we call the Son a Rock (for it is written, ''And that Rock was Christ '' *), can we so call the Spirit a dove or fire. For that rock was a thing already created, and after the mode of its action was x Matt. iii. 16. 2 Acts ii. 2-4. 3 Heb. i. 9. 4 John i. 14. 5 Luke iii. 6. © [The reference is to ¢xjmua, in Phil. ii. 8—the term chosen by St. Paul to describe the 'likeness of men," which the second trinitarian person assumed. The variety in the terms by which St. Paul describes the incarnation is very striking. The person incarnated subsists first in a '' form of God;"' he then takes along with this (still retaining this) a '' form of a servant;'' which form of aservant is a "' likeness of men;'' which likeness of men is 2 read (A.V. ''fashion'') or external form of a man.—W.G.,
7 Matt. iii. 16. 8 Acts ii. 3, 4. v. 6. 9 John i. 29. 10 Apoc, tr x Cor. x. 4.
Cuap. VIII.] ON THE TRINITY. 43 called by the name of Christ, whom it signified; like the stone placed under Jacob's head, and also anointed, which he took in order to signify the Lord;* or as Isaac was Christ, when he carried the wood for the sacrifice of himself.? A particular significative action was added to those already existing things; they did not, as that dove and fire, suddenly come into being in order simply so to signify. The dove and the fire, indeed, seem to me more like that flame which appeared to Moses in the bush,?or that pillar which the people followed in the wilderness,' or the thunders and lightnings which came when the Law was given in the mount.' For the corporeal form of these things came into being for the very purpose, that it might signify something, and then pass away.°® rightly be said to be sent, unless when the Word was made flesh, why is the Holy Spirit said to be sent,of whom no such incarnation was ever wrought? Butif by those visible things, which are put before us in the Law and in the prophets, neither the Father nor the Son but the Holy Spirit was manifested, why also is He said to be sent now, when He was sent also before after these modes?
13. In the perplexity of this inquiry, the Lord helping us, we must ask, first, whether the Father, or the Sor, or the Holy Spirit; or whether, sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son, sometimes the Holy Spirit; or whether it was without any distinction of persons, in such way as the one and only God is spoken of, that is, that the Trinity itself appeared to the Fathers by those forms of the creature. Next, whichever of these alternatives sha!l have been found or thought true, whether for this purpose only the creature was fashioned, wherein God, as He judged it suitable at that time, should be shown to human sight; or whether angels, who already existed, were so sent, as to speak in the person of God, taking a corporeal form from the corporeal creature, for the purpose of their ministry, as each. had. need; or else, according to the power the Creator has given them, changing and converting their own body itself, to which they are not subject, but govern it as subject to themselves, into whatever appearances they would that were suited and apt to their several actions. Lastly, we shall discern that which it was our purpose to ask, viz. whether the Son and the Holy Spirit were also sent before; and, if they were so sent, what difference there is between that sending, and the one which we read of in the Gospel; or whether in truth neither of them were sent, except when either the Son was made of the, Virgin Mary, or the Holy Spirit appeared in a visible form, whether in the dove or in tongues of fire.
CHAP. 7.—A DOUBT RAISED ABOUT DIVINE APPEARANCES.
12. The Holy Spirit, then, is also said to be sent, on account of these corporeal forms which came into existence in time, in order to signify and manifest Him, as He must needs be manifested, to human senses; yet He is not said to be less than the Father, as the Son, because He was in the form of a servant, is said to be; because that form of a servant inhered in the unity of the person of the Son, but those corporeal forms appeared for a time, in order to show what was necessary to be shown, and then ceased to be. Why, then, is not the Father also said to be sent, through those corporeal forms, the fire of the bush, and the pillar of cloud or of fire, and the lightnings in the mount, and whatever other things of the kind appeared at that time, when (as we have learned from Scripture testimony) He spake face to face with the fathers, if He Himself was manifested by those modes and forms of the creature, as exhibited and presented corporeally to human sight? But if the Son was manifested by them, why is He said to be sent so long after, when He was made of a woman, as the apostle says, "* But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman,"''" seeing that He was sent also before, when He appeared to the fathers by those changeable forms of the creature? Or if He cannot
CHAP. 8.—THE ENTIRE TRINITY INVISIBLE.
14. Let us therefore say nothing of those who, with an over carnal mind, have thought the nature of the Word of God, and the Wisdom, which, '* remaining in herself, maketh all things new," * whom we call the 'only Son of God, not only to be changeable, but also to be visible. For these, with more audacity than religion, bring a very dull heart to the inquiry into divine things. For whereas the soul is a spiritual substance, and whereas itself also was made, yet could not be made
T Gen. xxviii. 18. 2 Gen. xxii. 6. 3 Ex. iii. 2. 4 Ex. xili. 21, 22. 5 Ex. xix. 16. 6 [A theophany, though a harbinger of the incarnation, differs from it, by not effecting a hypostatical or personal union between God and the creature. When the Holy Goirit appeared in the form of a dove, he did not unite himself with it. 'he dove did not constitute an integral part of the divine person who employed it. Nor did the illuminated vapor in the theophany of the Shekinah. But when the Logos appeared in the form of a man, he united himself with it, so that it became a constituent part of his person. A theophany, as Augustin notices, is temporary and transient. The incarnation is perpetual.— GTI, S.] 7 Gal. iv. 4, |
8 Wisd. vii. 27.