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| Concerning the Holy Spirit, a reasoned proof.
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Chapter
VII.—Concerning the Holy Spirit, a reasoned
proof.
Moreover the Word must also possess
Spirit1469
| 1469 The Greek
theologians, founding on the primary sense of the Greek term
Πνεῦμα, and on certain
passages of Scripture in which the word seemed to retain that sense
more or less (especially Psalm xxxiii. 6. in the Vulgate rendering,
verbo Dei cœli formati sunt: et spiritu oris ejus omnis
virtus eorum), spoke of the Holy Ghost as proceeding from the Father
like the breath of His mouth in the utterance or emission of His
Word. See ch. 15 of this Book, where we have the sentence,
οὐδεμία γὰρ
ὁρμὴ ἄνευ
πνεύματος.
Compare also such passages as these—Greg. Naz., Orat. i.
3: Cyril. Alex., Thes., assert. 34, De Trin. dial. 2, p.
425, and 7, pp. 634, 640; Basil, Contra Eunom., B.V., and De
Spiritu Sancto, ch. 18; Greg. Scholar., Contra Latin., de
process. Spiritus Sancti, i. 4, where we have the
statement οὕτω
καὶ τὸ ἅγιον
Πνεῦμα ὥσπερ
ὁρμὴ καὶ
κίνησις,
ἐνδοτέρα τῆς
ὑπερφυοῦς
ἐκείνης
οὐσίας, so the Holy
Spirit is like an impulse and movement within that supernatural
essence. | . For in
fact even our word is not destitute of spirit; but in our case the
spirit is something different from our essence1470
| 1470 Or,
substance; οὐσία. | . For there is an attraction and
movement of the air which is drawn in and poured forth that the body
may be sustained. And it is this which in the moment of utterance
becomes the articulate word, revealing in itself the force of the
word1471
| 1471 Text, φανεροῦσα:
various reading, φέρουσα (cf.
Cyril, De Trinitate). | .1472
| 1472 Greg. Nyss.,
Catech., c. 2. | But in
the case of the divine nature, which is simple and uncompound, we must
confess in all piety that there exists a Spirit of God, for the Word is
not more imperfect than our own word. Now we cannot, in piety,
consider the Spirit to be something foreign that gains admission into
God from without, as is the case with compound natures like us.
Nay, just as, when we heard1473
| 1473 Text, ἀκούσαντες:
variant, ἀκούοντες
(so in Cyril). | of the Word of
God, we considered it to be not without subsistence, nor the product of
learning, nor the mere utterance of voice, nor as passing into the air
and perishing, but as being essentially subsisting, endowed with free
volition, and energy, and omnipotence: so also, when we have
learnt about the Spirit of God, we contemplate it as the companion of
the Word and the revealer of His energy, and not as mere breath without
subsistence. For to conceive of the Spirit that dwells in God as
after the likeness of our own spirit, would be to drag down the
greatness of the divine nature to the lowest depths of
degradation. But we must contemplate it as an essential power,
existing in its own proper and peculiar subsistence, proceeding from
the Father and resting in the Word1474
| 1474 So Cyril
speaks frequently of the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the
Father and being (ειναι) and abiding
(μένειν) in the
Son; as also of the Spirit as being of the Son and having His
nature in Him (ἐξ
αὐτοῦ καὶ
ἐμπεφυκὼς
αὐτῷ). The idea seems to have
been that as the Son is in the bosom of the Father so the Spirit is in
the bosom of the Son. The Spirit was compared again to the
energy, the natural, living energy, of the Son
(ἐνέργεια
φυσικὴ καὶ
ζωσα, τὸ
ἐνεργὲς τοῦ
υἱοῦ), Cyril, Dial 7 ad
Hermiam. Such terms as προβολεὺς
ἐκφαντορικοῦ
πνεύματος,
the Producer, or, Emitter of the revealing Spirit, and
the ἔκφανσις or
ἔλλαμψις, the
revealing, the forth-shewing, were also used to express
the procession of the one eternal Person from the Other as like the
emission or forth-shewing of light from light. | , and
shewing forth the Word, neither capable of disjunction from God in Whom
it exists, and the Word Whose companion it is, nor poured forth to
vanish into nothingness1475
| 1475 Greg. Naz.,
Orat. 37, 44. | , but being in
subsistence in the likeness of the Word, endowed with life, free
volition, independent movement, energy, ever willing that which is
good, and having power to keep pace with the will in all its
decrees1476
| 1476 Text, πρὸς
πᾶσαν
πρόθεσιν: variant
θέλησιν in almost all
the codices. | , having no
beginning and no end. For never was the Father at any time
lacking in the Word, nor the Word in the Spirit.
Thus because of the unity in nature, the error of
the Greeks in holding that God is many, is utterly destroyed: and
again by our acceptance of the Word and the Spirit, the dogma of the
Jews is overthrown: and there remains of each party1477
only what is profitable1478
| 1478 Greg.
Orat. 38, and elsewhere. | . On the one hand of the Jewish
idea we have the unity of God’s nature, and on the other, of the
Greek, we have the distinction in subsistences and that only1479
| 1479 Greg. Nyss.,
Catech., c. 3. | .
But should the
Jew refuse to accept the Word and the Spirit, let the divine Scripture
confute him and curb his tongue. For concerning the Word, the
divine David says, For ever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in
heaven1480
. And
again, He sent His Word and healed them1481
. But the word that is uttered is
not sent, nor is it for ever settled1482
| 1482 Text, διαμένει:
variant, μένει. | .
And concerning the Spirit, the same David says, Thou sendest forth
Thy Spirit, they are created1483
.
And again, By the word of the Lord were the heavens made: and
all the host of them by the breath of His mouth1484
. Job, too, says, The Spirit of
God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me
life1485
. Now the
Spirit which is sent and makes and stablishes and conserves, is not
mere breath that dissolves, any more than the mouth of God is a bodily
member. For the conception of both must be such as harmonizes
with the Divine nature1486
| 1486 Basil, De
Spir. Sancto, ad Amphil. c. 18. | .E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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