Chapter XXVIII. Argument.--He Proves Also that the Words Spoken to Philip Make Nothing for the Sabellians.
Hereto also I will add that view wherein the heretic, while he rejoices as if at the loss of some power of seeing special truth and light, acknowledges the total blindness of his error. For again and again, and frequently, he objects that it was said, "Have I been so long time with you, and do ye not know me, Philip? He who hath seen me, hath seen the Father also." [5234] But let him learn what he does not understand. Philip is reproved, and rightly, and deservedly indeed, because he has said, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." [5235] For when had he either heard from Christ, or learnt that Christ was the Father? although, on the other hand, he had frequently heard, and had often learned, rather that He was the Son, not that He was the Father. For what the Lord said, "If ye have known me, ye have known my Father also: and henceforth ye have known Him, and have seen Him," [5236] He said not as wishing to be understood Himself to be the Father, but implying that he who thoroughly, and fully, and with all faith and all religiousness, drew near to the Son of God, by all means shall attain, through the Son Himself, in whom he thus believes, to the Father, and shall see Him. "For no one," says He, "can come to the Father, but by me." [5237] And therefore he shall not only come to God the Father, and shall know the Father Himself; but, moreover, he ought thus to hold, and so to presume in mind and heart, that he has henceforth not only known, but seen the Father. For often the divine Scripture announces things that are not yet done as being done, because thus they shall be; and things which by all means have to happen, it does not predict as if they were future, but narrates as if they were done. And thus, although Christ had not been born as yet in the times of Isaiah the prophet, he said, "For unto us a child is born;" [5238] and although Mary had not yet been approached, he said, "And I approached unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son." [5239] And when Christ had not yet made known the mind of the Father, it is said, "And His name shall be called the Angel of Great Counsel." [5240] And when He had not yet suffered, he declared, "He is as a sheep led to the slaughter." [5241] And although the cross had never yet existed, He said, "All day long have I stretched out my hands to an unbelieving people." [5242] And although not yet had He been scornfully given to drink, the Scripture says, "In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." [5243] And although He had not yet been stripped, He said, "Upon my vesture they did cast lots, and they numbered my bones: they pierced my hands and my feet." [5244] For the divine Scripture, foreseeing, speaks of things which it knows shall be as being already done, and speaks of things as perfected which it regards as future, but which shall come to pass without any doubt. And thus the Lord in the present passage said, "Henceforth ye have known and have seen Him." Now He said that the Father should be seen by whomsoever had followed the Son, not as if the Son Himself should be the Father seen, but that whosoever was willing to follow Him, and be His disciple, should obtain the reward of being able to see the Father. For He also is the image of God the Father; so that it is added, moreover, to these things, that "as the Father worketh, so also the Son worketh." [5245] And the Son is an imitator [5246] of all the Father's works, so that every one may regard it just as if he saw the Father, when he sees Him who always imitates the invisible Father in all His works. But if Christ is the Father Himself, in what manner does He immediately add, and say, "Whosoever believeth in me, the works that I do he shall do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to my Father?" [5247] And He further subjoins, "If ye love me, keep my commandments; and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter." [5248] After which also He adds this: "If any one loveth me, he shall keep my word: and my Father will love him; and we will come unto him, and will make our abode with him." [5249] Moreover, also, He added this too: "But the Advocate, that Holy Spirit whom the Father will send, He will teach you, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." [5250] He utters, further, that passage when He shows Himself to be the Son, and reasonably subjoins, and says, "If ye loved me, ye would rejoice because I go unto the Father: for the Father is greater than I." [5251] But what shall we say when He also continues in these words: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit He purgeth, that it may bring forth more fruit?" [5252] Still He persists, and adds: "As the Father hath loved me, so also have I loved you: remain in my love. If ye have kept my commandments, ye shall remain in my love; even as I have kept the Father's commandments, and remain in His love." [5253] Further, He says in addition: "But I have called you friends; for all things which I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." [5254] Moreover, He adds to all this: "But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not Him that sent me." [5255] These things then, after the former, evidently attesting Him to be not the Father but the Son, the Lord would never have added, if He had had it in mind, either that He was the Father, or wished Himself to be understood as the Father, except that He might declare this, that every man ought henceforth to consider, in seeing the image of God the Father through the Son, that it was as if he saw the Father; since every one believing on the Son may be exercised in the contemplation of the likeness, so that, being accustomed to seeing the divinity in likeness, he may go forward, and grow even to the perfect contemplation of God the Father Almighty. And since he who has imbibed this truth into his mind and soul, and has believed of all things that thus it shall be, he shall even now see, as it were, in some measure the Father whom he will see hereafter; and he may so regard it, as if he actually held, what he knows for certain that he shall one day hold. But if Christ Himself had been the Father, why did He promise as future, a reward which He had already granted and given? For that He says, "Blessed are they of a pure heart, for they shall see God," [5256] it is understood to promise the contemplation and vision of the Father; therefore He had not given this; for why should He promise if He had already given? For He had given if He was the Father: for He was seen, and He was touched. But since, when Christ Himself is seen and touched, He still promises, and says that he who is of a pure heart shall see God, He proves by this very saying that He who was then present was not the Father, seeing that He was seen, and yet promised that whoever should be of a pure heart should see the Father. It was therefore not the Father, but the Son, who promised this, because He who was the Son promised that which had yet to be seen; and His promise would have been superfluous unless He had been the Son. For why did He promise to the pure in heart that they should see the Father, if already they who were then present saw Christ as the Father? But because He was the Son, not the Father, rightly also He was then seen as the Son, because He was the image of God; and the Father, because He is invisible, is promised and pointed out as to be seen by the pure in heart. Let it then be enough to have suggested even these points against that heretic; a few words about many things. For a field which is indeed both wide and expansive would be laid open if we should desire to discuss that heretic more fully; seeing that bereaved, in these two particulars, as it were of his eyes plucked out, he is altogether overcome in the blindness of his doctrine.
[5234] John xiv. 9.
[5235] John xiv. 8.
[5236] John xiv. 7.
[5237] John xiv. 6.
[5238] Isa. ix. 6.
[5239] Isa. viii. 3.
[5240] Isa. ix. 6, LXX. [See pp. 628, 632, supra.]
[5241] Isa. liii. 7.
[5242] Isa. lxv. 2.
[5243] Ps. lxix. 21.
[5244] Ps. xxii. 18, 17.
[5245] John v. 17.
[5246] [Cap. xxi. note 5, 632, supra.]
[5247] John xiv. 12.
[5248] John xiv. 15, 16.
[5249] John xiv. 23.
[5250] John xiv. 26.
[5251] John xiv. 28.
[5252] John xv. 1.
[5253] John xv. 9, 10.
[5254] John xv. 15.
[5255] John xv. 21.
[5256] Matt. v. 8.
Chapter XXIX. Argument.--He Next Teaches Us that the Authority of the Faith Enjoins, After the Father and the Son, to Believe Also on the Holy Spirit, Whose Operations He Enumerates from Scripture.
Moreover, the order of reason, and the authority of the faith in the disposition of the words and in the Scriptures of the Lord, admonish us after these things to believe also on the Holy Spirit, once promised to the Church, and in the appointed occasions of times given. For He was promised by Joel the prophet, but given by Christ. "In the last days," says the prophet, "I will pour out of my Spirit upon my servants and my handmaids." [5257] And the Lord said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins ye remit, they shall be remitted; and whose ye retain, they shall be retained." [5258] But this Holy Spirit the Lord Christ calls at one time "the Paraclete," at another pronounces to be the "Spirit of truth." [5259] And He is not new in the Gospel, nor yet even newly given; for it was He Himself who accused the people in the prophets, and in the apostles gave them the appeal to the Gentiles. For the former deserved to be accused, because they had contemned the law; and they of the Gentiles who believe deserve to be aided by the defence of the Spirit, because they earnestly desire to attain to the Gospel law. Assuredly in the Spirit there are different kinds of offices, because in the times there is a different order of occasions; and yet, on this account, He who discharges these offices is not different, nor is He another in so acting, but He is one and the same, distributing His offices according to the times, and the occasions and impulses of things. Moreover, the Apostle Paul says, "Having the same Spirit; as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak." [5260] He is therefore one and the same Spirit who was in the prophets and apostles, except that in the former He was occasional, in the latter always. But in the former not as being always in them, in the latter as abiding always in them; and in the former distributed with reserve, in the latter all poured out; in the former given sparingly, in the latter liberally bestowed; not yet manifested before the Lord's resurrection, but conferred after the resurrection. For, said He, "I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, that He may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth." [5261] And, "When He, the Advocate, shall come, whom I shall send unto you from my Father, the Spirit of truth who proceedeth from my Father." [5262] And, "If I go not away, that Advocate shall not come to you; but if I go away, I will send Him to you." [5263] And, "When the Spirit of truth shall come, He will direct you into all the truth." [5264] And because the Lord was about to depart to the heavens, He gave the Paraclete out of necessity to the disciples; so as not to leave them in any degree orphans, [5265] which was little desirable, and forsake them without an advocate and some kind of protector. For this is He who strengthened their hearts and minds, who marked out the Gospel sacraments, who was in them the enlightener of divine things; and they being strengthened, feared, for the sake of the Lord's name, neither dungeons nor chains, nay, even trod under foot the very powers of the world and its tortures, since they were henceforth armed and strengthened by the same Spirit, having in themselves the gifts which this same Spirit distributes, and appropriates to the Church, the spouse of Christ, as her ornaments. This is He who places prophets in the Church, instructs teachers, directs tongues, gives powers and healings, does wonderful works, offers discrimination of spirits, affords powers of government, suggests counsels, and orders and arranges whatever other gifts there are of charismata; and thus make the Lord's Church everywhere, and in all, perfected and completed. This is He who, after the manner of a dove, when our Lord was baptized, came and abode upon Him, dwelling in Christ full and entire, and not maimed in any measure or portion; but with His whole overflow copiously distributed and sent forth, so that from Him others might receive some enjoyment of His graces: the source of the entire Holy Spirit remaining in Christ, so that from Him might be drawn streams of gifts and works, while the Holy Spirit dwelt affluently in Christ. For truly Isaiah, prophesying this, said: "And the Spirit of wisdom and understanding shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and piety; and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill Him." [5266] This self-same thing also he said in the person of the Lord Himself, in another place, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because He has anointed me, He has sent me to preach the Gospel to the poor." [5267] Similarly David: "Wherefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." [5268] Of Him the Apostle Paul says: "For he who hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of His." [5269] "And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." [5270] He it is who effects with water the second birth as a certain seed of divine generation, and a consecration of a heavenly nativity, the pledge of a promised inheritance, and as it were a kind of handwriting of eternal salvation; who can make us God's temple, and fit us for His house; who solicits the divine hearing for us with groanings that cannot be uttered; filling the offices of advocacy, and manifesting the duties of our defence,--an inhabitant given for our bodies and an effector of their holiness. Who, working in us for eternity, can also produce our bodies at the resurrection of immortality, accustoming them to be associated in Himself with heavenly power, and to be allied with the divine eternity of the Holy Spirit. For our bodies are both trained in Him and by Him to advance to immortality, by learning to govern themselves with moderation according to His decrees. For this is He who "desireth against the flesh," because "the flesh resisteth against the Spirit." [5271] This is He who restrains insatiable desires, controls immoderate lusts, quenches unlawful fires, conquers reckless impulses, repels drunkenness, checks avarice, drives away luxurious revellings, links love, binds together affections, keeps down sects, orders the rule of truth, overcomes heretics, turns out the wicked, guards the Gospel. Of this says the same apostle: "We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God." [5272] Concerning Him he exultingly says: "And I think also that I have the Spirit of God." [5273] Of Him he says: "The Spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets." [5274] Of Him also he tells: "Now the Spirit speaketh plainly, that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, doctrines of demons, who speak lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience cauterized." [5275] Established in this Spirit, "none ever calleth Jesus anathema;" [5276] no one has ever denied Christ to be the Son of God, or has rejected God the Creator; no one utters any words of his own contrary to the Scriptures; no one ordains other and sacrilegious decrees; no one draws up different laws. [5277] Whosoever shall blaspheme against Him, "hath not forgiveness, not only in this world, but also not in the world to come." [5278] This is He who in the apostles gives testimony to Christ; in the martyrs shows forth the constant faithfulness of their religion; in virgins restrains the admirable continency of their sealed chastity; in others, guards the laws of the Lord's doctrine incorrupt and uncontaminated; destroys heretics, corrects the perverse, condemns infidels, makes known pretenders; moreover, rebukes the wicked, keeps the Church uncorrupt and inviolate, in the sanctity of a perpetual virginity and truth.