18. Neither is the Spirit of either thence excluded, that is, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son; which Holy Spirit is specially called "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive." [95] For to have the fruition of God the Trinity, after whose image we are made, is indeed the fullness of our joy, than which there is no greater. On this account the Holy Spirit is sometimes spoken of as if He alone sufficed to our blessedness: and He does alone so suffice, because He cannot be divided from the Father and the Son; as the Father alone is sufficient, because He cannot be divided from the Son and the Holy Spirit; and the Son alone is sufficient because He cannot be divided from the Father and the Holy Spirit. For what does He mean by saying, "If ye love me, keep my commandments; and I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive," [96] that is, the lovers of the world? For "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." [97] But it may perhaps seem, further, as if the words, "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter," were so said as if the Son alone were not sufficient. And that place so speaks of the Spirit, as if He alone were altogether sufficient: "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." [98] Pray, therefore, is the Son here excluded, as if He did not teach all truth, or as if the Holy Spirit were to fill up that which the Son could not fully teach? Let them say then, if it pleases them, that the Holy Spirit is greater than the Son, whom they are wont to call less. Or is it, forsooth, because it is not said, He alone,--or, No one else except Himself--will guide you into all truth, that they allow that the Son also may be believed to teach together with Him? In that case the apostle has excluded the Son from knowing those things which are of God, where he says, "Even so the things of God knoweth no one, but the Spirit of God:" [99] so that these perverse men might, upon this ground, go on to say that none but the Holy Spirit teaches even the Son the things of God, as the greater teaches the less; to whom the Son Himself ascribes so much as to say, "But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you."
[66] Habitum
[67] 1 Cor. xv. 28, 24, 27
[68] Subjicere
[69] Phil. iii. 20, 21
[70] Evacuaverit
[71] 1 Cor. xv. 24, 25
[72] Ps. cxii. 8
[73] 1 Cor. xiii. 12
[74] Matt. xi. 27
[75] Similitudines
[76] In recubitu Cant. i. 11; see LXX.
[77] Vestra
[78] Col. iii. 3, 4
[79] 1 Cor. xiii. 12
[80] 1 John iii. 2
[81] Ex. iii 14
[82] John xvii. 3
[83] 1 Cor. iv. 5
[84] Ps. v. 5
[85] [The common explanation is better, which regards the "kingdom" that is to be delivered up, to be the mediatorial commission. When Christ shall have finished his work of redeeming men, he no longer discharges the office of a mediator. It seems incongruous to denominate the beatific vision of God by the redeemed, a surrender of a kingdom. In I. x. 21, Augustin says that when the Redeemer brings the redeemed from faith to sight, "He is said to deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father.' "--W.G.T.S.]
[86] Rom. viii. 24, 25
[87] Cant. i. 12
[88] Ps. xvi. 11
[89] John xiv. 8, 10
[90] 2 Cor. v. 6, 7
[91] Acts xv. 9
[92] Matt. v. 8
[93] Ps. xci. 16
[94] John x. 30
[95] John xiv. 17
[96] John xiv. 15-17
[97] 1 Cor. ii. 14
[98] John xvi. 13
[99] 1 Cor. ii. 11
[100] John xvi. 6, 7