Chapter 21.—Of the Sensible Showing of the Holy Spirit, and of the Coeternity of the Trinity. What Has Been Said, and What Remains to Be Said.

But with respect to the sensible showing of the Holy Spirit, whether by the shape of a dove,553    Matt. iii. 16 or by fiery tongues,554    Acts ii. 3 when the subjected and subservient creature by temporal motions and forms manifested His substance co-eternal with the Father and the Son, and alike with them unchangeable, while it was not united so as to be one person with Him, as the flesh was which the Word was made;555    John i. 14 I do not dare to say that nothing of the kind was done aforetime. But I would boldly say, that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, of one and the same substance, God the Creator, the Omnipotent Trinity, work indivisibly; but that this cannot be indivisibly manifested by the creature, which is far inferior, and least of all by the bodily creature: just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit cannot be named by our words, which certainly are bodily sounds, except in their own proper intervals of time, divided by a distinct separation, which intervals the proper syllables of each word occupy. Since in their proper substance wherein they are, the three are one, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the very same, by no temporal motion, above the whole creature, without any interval of time and place, and at once one and the same from eternity to eternity, as it were eternity itself, which is not without truth and charity. But, in my words, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are separated, and cannot be named at once, and occupy their own proper places separately invisible letters. And as, when I name my memory, and intellect, and will, each name refers to each severally, but yet each is uttered by all three; for there is no one of these three names that is not uttered by both my memory and my intellect and my will together [by the soul as a whole]; so the Trinity together wrought both the voice of the Father, and the flesh of the Son, and the dove of the Holy Spirit, while each of these things is referred severally to each person. And by this similitude it is in some degree discernible, that the Trinity, which is inseparable in itself, is manifested separably by the appearance of the visible creature; and that the operation of the Trinity is also inseparable in each severally of those things which are said to pertain properly to the manifesting of either the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit.

31. If then I am asked, in what manner either words or sensible forms and appearances were wrought before the incarnation of the Word of God, which should prefigure it as about to come, I reply that God wrought those things by the angels; and this I have also shown sufficiently, as I think, by testimonies of the Holy Scriptures. And if I am asked how the incarnation itself was brought to pass, I reply that the Word of God itself was made flesh, that is, was made man, yet not turned and changed into that which was made; but so made, that there should be there not only the Word of God and the flesh of man, but also the rational soul of man, and that this whole should both be called God on account of God, and man on account of man. And if this is understood with difficulty, the mind must be purged by faith, by more and more abstaining from sins, and by doing good works, and by praying with the groaning of holy desires; that by profiting through the divine help, it may both understand and love. And if I am asked, how, after the incarnation of the Word, either a voice of the Father was produced, or a corporeal appearance by which the Holy Spirit was manifested: I do not doubt indeed that this was done through the creature; but whether only corporeal and sensible, or whether by the employment also of the spirit rational or intellectual (for this is the term by which some choose to call what the Greeks name νοερόν), not certainly so as to form one person (for who could possibly say that whatever creature it was by which the voice of the Father sounded, is in such sense God the Father; or whatever creature it was by which the Holy Spirit was manifested in the form of a dove, or in fiery tongues, is in such sense the Holy Spirit, as the Son of God is that man who was made of a virgin?), but only to the ministry of bringing about such intimations as God judged needful; or whether anything else is to be understood: is difficult to discover, and not expedient rashly to affirm. Yet I see not how those things could have been brought to pass without the rational or intellectual creature. But it is not yet the proper place to explain, as the Lord may give me strength, why I so think; for the arguments of heretics must first be discussed and refuted, which they do not produce from the divine books, but from their own reasons, and by which, as they think, they forcibly compel us so to understand the testimonies of the Scriptures which treat of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as they themselves will.

32. But now, as I think, it has been sufficiently shown, that the Son is not therefore less because He is sent by the Father, nor the Holy Spirit less because both the Father sent Him and the Son. For these things are perceived to be laid down in the Scriptures, either on account of the visible creature; or rather on account of commending to our thoughts the emanation [within the Godhead];556    [The original is: “propter principii commendationem,” which the English translator renders “On account of commending to our thoughts the principle [of the Godhead].” The technical use of “principium” is missed. Augustin says that the phrases, “sending the Son,” and “sending the Spirit,” have reference to the “visible creature” through which in the theophanies each was manifested; but still more, to the fact that the Father is the “beginning” of the Son, and the Father and Son are the “beginning” of the Spirit. This fact of a “beginning,” or emanation (manatio) of one from another, is what is commended to our thoughts.—W.G.T.S.] but not on account of inequality, or imparity, or unlikeness of substance; since, even if God the Father had willed to appear visibly through the subject creature, yet it would be most absurd to say that He was sent either by the Son, whom He begot, or by the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from Him. Let this, therefore, be the limit of the present book. Henceforth in the rest we shall see, the Lord helping, of what sort are those crafty arguments of the heretics, and in what manner they may be confuted.

CAPUT XXI.

De sensibili demonstratione sancti Spiritus, et de coaeternitate Trinitatis. Quid dictum sit et quid dicendum restet. De sensibili autem demonstratione Spiritus sancti, sive per columbae speciem (Matth. III, 16), sive per linguas igneas (Act. II, 3), cum ejus substantiam Patri et Filio coaeternam pariterque incommutabilem subdita et serviens creatura temporalibus motibus et formis ostenderet, cum ad ejus personae unitatem, sicut caro quod Verbum factum est (Joan. I, 14), non copularetur, non audeo dicere nihil tale factum esse antea. Sed plane fidenter dixerim, Patrem et Filium et Spiritum sanctum unius ejusdemque substantiae, Deum creatorem, Trinitatem omnipotentem inseparabiliter operari: sed ita non posse per longe imparem maximeque corpoream creaturam inseparabiliter demonstrari; sicut per voces nostras, quae utique corporaliter sonant, non possunt Pater et Filius et Spiritus sanctus, nisi suis et propriis intervallis temporum certa separatione distinctis, quae suae cujusque vocabuli syllabae occupant, nominari. In sua quippe substantia qua sunt, tria unum sunt, Pater et Filius et Spiritus sanctus, nullo temporali motu super omnem creaturam idipsum sine ullis intervallis temporum vel locorum, et simul unum atque idem ab aeternitate in aeternitatem, tanquam ipsa aeternitas quae sine veritate et charitate non est: in meis autem vocibus separati sunt Pater et Filius et Spiritus sanctus, nec simul dici potuerunt, et in litteris visibilibus sua separatim locorum spatia tenuerunt. Et quemadmodum cum memoriam meam 0910 et intellectum et voluntatem nomino, singula quidem nomina ad res singulas referuntur, sed tamen ab omnibus tribus singula facta sunt; nullum enim horum trium nominum est, quod non et memoria et intellectus et voluntas mea simul operata sint: ita Trinitas simul operata est et vocem Patris, et carnem Filii, et columbam Spiritus sancti, cum ad personas singulas singula haec referantur. Qua similitudine utcumque cognoscitur inseparabilem in se ipsa Trinitatem per visibilis creaturae speciem separabiliter demonstrari, et inseparabilem Trinitatis operationem etiam in singulis esse rebus, quae vel ad Patrem, vel ad Filium, vel ad Spiritum sanctum demonstrandum proprie pertinere dicuntur.

31. Si ergo a me quaeritur, quomodo factae sint vel voces vel sensibiles formae atque species ante incarnationem Verbi Dei, quae hoc futurum praefigurarent: per Angelos ea Deum operatum esse respondeo; quod etiam Scripturarum sanctarum testimoniis, quantum existimo, satis ostendi. Si autem quaeritur, ipsa incarnatio quomodo facta sit: ipsum Verbum Dei dico carnem factum, id est, hominem factum, non tamen in hoc quod factum est conversum atque mutatum; ita sane factum, ut ibi sit non tantum Verbum Dei et hominis caro, sed etiam rationalis hominis anima, atque hoc totum et Deus dicatur propter Deum et homo propter hominem. Quod si difficile intelligitur, mens fide purgetur, magis magisque abstinendo a peccatis, et bene operando, et orando cum gemitu desideriorum sanctorum, ut per divinum adjutorium proficiendo, et intelligat, et amet. Si autem quaeritur, post incarnationem Verbi, quomodo facta sit vel vox Patris, vel species corporalis qua Spiritus sanctus demonstratus est: per creaturam quidem facta ista non dubito; sed utrum tantummodo corporalem atque sensibilem, an adhibito spiritu etiam rationali vel intellectuali (hoc enim quibusdam placuit appellare, quod Graeci dicunt νοερόν), non quidem ad unitatem personae, (quis enim hoc dixerit, ut quidquid illud est creaturae per quod sonuit vox Patris, ita sit Deus Pater, aut quidquid illud est creaturae in quo per columbae speciem vel per igneas linguas Spiritus sanctus demonstratus est, ita sit Spiritus sanctus, sicut est Dei Filius homo ille qui ex virgine factus est?) sed tandummodo ad ministerium peragendae significationis, sicut oportuisse Deus judicavit: an aliquid aliud intelligendum sit, invenire difficile est, et temere affirmare non expedit. Quomodo tamen ista sine rationali vel intellectuali creatura potuerint fieri, non video. Neque adhuc locus est explicare cur ita sentiam, quantum vires Dominus dederit. Prius enim sunt discutienda et refellenda haereticorum argumenta, quae non ex divinis Libris, sed ex rationibus suis proferunt, quibus se vehementer cogere arbitrantur, testimonia Scripturarum quae de Patre et Filio et Spiritu sancto sunt, ita esse intelligenda ut ipsi volunt.

32. Nunc autem non ideo minorem Filium quia missus est a Patre, nec ideo minorem Spiritum sanctum 0911 quia et Pater eum misit et Filius, sufficienter, quantum arbitror, demonstratum est. Sive enim propter visibilem creaturam, sive potius propter princicipii commendationem, non propter inaequalitatem vel imparilitatem vel dissimilitudinem substantiae in Scripturis haec posita intelliguntur: quia etiam si voluisset Deus Pater per subjectam creaturam visibiliter 0912 apparere, absurdissime tamen aut a Filio quem genuit, aut a Spiritu sancto qui de illo procedit, missus diceretur. Iste igitur sit hujus voluminis modus: deinceps in caeteris, adjuvante Domino, illa haereticorum versutissima argumenta qualia sint, et quemadmodum redarguantur videbimus.