things severally are specially predicated, these from a name which is suitable to both, the
ON THE TRINITY. based
CuHap. XII.]
the Lord says; and because that which the apostle says, *' Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His," 5 he says certainly of the Holy Spirit Himself. When we say, therefore, the gift of the giver, and the giver of the gift, we speak in both cases relatively in reciprocal reference. Therefore the Holy Spirit is a certain unutterable communion of the Father and the Son; and on that account, perhaps, He is so called, because the same name is suitable to both the Father and the Son. For He Himself is called specially that which they are called in common; because both the Father is a spirit and the Son a spirit, both the Father is holy and the Son holy.® In. order, therefore, that the communion of both may be signified * from a name which is suitable to both, the Holy Spirit is called the gift of both. And this Trinity is one God, alone, good, great, eternal, omnipotent; itself its own unity, deity, greatness, goodness, eternity, omnipotence.
do we say three greats, but one who is great; since God is not great by partaking of greatness, but He is great by Himself being great, because He Himself is His own greatness. Let the same be said also of the goodness, and of the eternity, and of the omnipotence of God, and, in short, of all the predicaments which can be predicated of God, as He is spoken of in respect to Himself, not metaphorically and by similitude, but properly, if indeed anything can be spoken of Him properly, by the mouth of man.
CHAP, II.—WHAT IS SAID RELATIVELY IN THE
TRINITY,
12. But whereas, in the same Trinity, some things severally are specially predicated, these are in no way said in reference to themselves in themselves, but either in mutual reference, or in respect to the creature; and, therefore, it is manifest that such things are spoken relatively, not in the way of substance. For the Trinity is called one God, great, good, eternal, omnipotent; and the same God Himself may be called His own deity, His own magnitude, His own goodness, His own eternity, His own omnipotence: but the Trinity cannot in the same way be called the Father, except perhaps metaphorically, in respect to the creature, on account of the adoption of sons. For that which is written, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord,''* ought certainly not to be understood as if the Son were excepted, or the Holy Spirit were excepted; which one Lord our God we
Pos
CHAP, 12.—-IN RELATIVE THINGS THAT ARE RE-
CIPROCAL, NAMES ARE SOMETIMES WANTING,
13. Neither ought it to influence us—since we have said that the Holy Spirit is so called relatively, not the Trinity itself, but He who is in the Trinity—that the designation of Him to whom He is referred, does not seem to answer in turn to His designation. For we cannot, as we say the servant of a master, and the master of aservant, the son of a father and the father of a son, so also say here—because these things are said relatively. For we speak of the Holy Spirit of the Father; but, on the other hand, we do not speak of the Father of the Holy Spirit, lest the Holy Spirit should be understood to be His Son. So.also we speak of the Holy Spirit of the Son; but we do not speak of the Son of the rightly call also our Father, as regenerating us by His grace, Neither can the Trinity in any wise be called the Son, but it can be called, in its entirety, the Holy Spirit, according to that which is written, *'God is a Spirit;'?? because both the Father is a spirit nd the Son is a spirit, and the Father is holy nd the Son is holy. Therefore, since the ather, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one
5 Rom. viii. 9. 6 [The reason which Augustin here assigns, why the name Holy Spirit is given to the third person—namely, because spirituality 1s a characteristic of both the Father and Son, from both of whom he proceeds—is not that assigned in the more developed trinitarianism, 'he explanation 1m this latter is, that the third person is denominated the Spirit because of the peculiar manner in which the divine essence is communicated to him—namely, by sfzvatzon, or outbreathing: sAiritus guia spiratus. This is supported by the etymological signification of mvedvua, which is breath; and by the symbolical action of Christ in John xx. 22, which suggests the eternal spiration, or out-breathing of the third person. The third trinitarian person is no more spiritual, in the sense of immaterial, than the first and second persons, and if the term "Spirit'' is to be taken in this the ordinary signification, the '' trinitarian relation," or personal peculiarity, as Augustin remarks, "* is not itself. apparent in this name;'' because it would mention. nothing distinctive of the third person, and not belonging to the first and second. But taken technically to denote the spiration or out-breathing by the Father and Son, the trinitarian peculiarity is apparent in the name.
od, and certainly God is holy, and God is a pirit, the Trinity can be called also the Holy pirit. But yet that Holy Spirit, who is not the Trinity, but is understood as in the Trinity, is spoken of in His proper name of the Holy Spirit relatively, since He is referred both to the Father and to the Son, because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit both of the Father and of the Son. But the relation is not itself apparent in that. name, but it is apparent when He is called the gift of God; for He is the gift of the Father and of the Son, because '' He proceeds from the Father,''+ as
And the epithet '' Holy"' is similarly explained. The third person is the //ody Spirit, not because he is any more holy than the first andsecond, but because he is the source and author of holiness in all created spirits. 'This is eminently and officially his work. In this way also, the epithet '*Holy''—which in its ordinary use would specify nothing peculiar to the third person,—mentions a characteristic that differentiates him from the Father and Son,-- lw. G. T. S.J
2 John iv. 24. t Deut. vi. 4.
4 John xv. 26. 3 Acts viii. 20.
94 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [Book V.
assuredly, in working, He remains within Himself; for He Himself is not changed and turned into any of the things which He works. And see what it is that He works: "'But the manifestation of the Spirit,'? he says, 'is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another the discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will;'' certainly as God—for who can work such great things but God ?— but 'it is the same God which worketh all in all."'3 For if we are asked point by point concerning the Holy Spirit, we answer most truly that He is God; and with the Father and the Son together He is one God. Therefore, God is spoken of as one Beginning in respect to the creature, not as two or three beginnings.
Holy Spirit, lest the Holy Spirit be understood to be His Father. For it is the case in many relatives, that no designation is to be found by which those things which bear relation to each other may [in name] mutually correspond to each other. For what is more clearly spoken relatively than the word earnest? Since it is referred to that of which it is an earnest, and an earnest is always an earnest of something. Can we, then, as we say, the earnest of the Father and of the Son,' say in turn, the Father of the earnest or the Son of the earnest? But, on the other hand, when we say the gift of the Father and of the Son, we cannot indeed say the Father of the gift, or the Son of the gift; but that these may correspond mutually to each other, we say the gift of the giver and the giver of the gift; because here a word in use may be found, there it cannot.
CHAP. 13.—-HOW THE WORD BEGINNING (PRIN-
CIPIUM) IS SPOKEN RELATIVELY IN THE TRINTENS
14. The Father is called so, therefore, relatively, and He is also relatively said to be the Beginning, and whatever else there may be of the kind; but He is called the Father in relation to the Son, the Beginning in relation to all things, which are from Him. So the Son is relatively so called; He is called also relatively the Word and the Image. And in all these appellations He is referred to the Father, but the Father is called by none of them, And the Son is also called the Beginning; for when it was said to Him,
CHAP, 14.—THE FATHER AND THE SON THE
ONLY BEGINNING (PRINCIPIUM) OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
15. But in their mutual relation to one another in the Trinity itself, if the begetter is a beginning in relation to that which he begets, the Father is a beginning in relation to the Son, because He begets Him; but whether the Father is also a beginning in relation to the Holy Spirit, since it is said, '' He proceeds from the Father," is no small question.
Who art Thou?" He replied, '' Even the Beginning, who also speak to you."'? But is He, pray, the Beginning of the Father? For He intended to show Himself to be the Creator when He said that He was the Beginning, as the Father also is the beginning
Because, if it is so, He will not only be a beginning to that thing which He begets or makes, but also to that which He gives. And here, too, that question comes to light, as it can, which is wont to trouble many, Why the Holy Spirit is not also a son, since He, too, comes forth from the Father, as it is read in the Gospel. For the Spirit came forth, not as born, but as given; and so He is not called a son, because He was neither born, as the Only-begotten, nor made, so that by the grace of God He might be born into adoption, as we are. For that which is born of the Father, is referred to the Father only when called Son, and so the Son is the Son of the Father, and not also our Son; but that which is given is referred both to Him who gave, and to those to whom He gave; and so the Holy Spirit is not only the Spirit of the Father and of the Son who gave Him, but of the creature in that all things are from Him. For creator, too, is spoken relatively to creature, as master to servant. And so, when we say, both that the Father is the Beginning, and that the Son is the Beginning, we do not speak of two beginnings of the creature; since both the Father and the Son together is one beginning in respect to the creature, as one Creator, as one God. But if whatever remains within itself and produces or works anything is a beginning to that thing which it produces or works; then we cannot deny that the Holy Spirit also is rightly called the Beginning, since we do not separate Him from the appellation of Creator: and it is written of Him that He works; and t2 Cor, y. 5, and Eph. i. 14. 2 John viii. 25.
31 Cor. xii, 6-11. 4 John xv. 26.