And so the substance of the soul, inasmuch as it is corporeal matter, knows not how to be infused at all into another rational creature. For compared to the grossness of the outer man, the soul can be called incorporeal; but referred to its Author, to whom its matter is comprehensible and its making palpable, it can by Him be enclosed and bound within the body, and consigned to perpetual fire, as we read: that 'they go into eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels.' To this Author beyond doubt belongs the more perfect operation in a corporeal thing. But perhaps you say: It is manifest that even the importunate violence of demons frequently infuses itself into the men whom it had received to be tempted. It is not so:
for they can enter the hiding-places of the body, but they cannot approach the inner parts of the soul. It must therefore be understood that the crafty subtlety of the spiritual wickednesses disturbs by its incursion those parts of the members which are at times wearied by excessive wine or by the heat of fever. And so the hostile temptation knows how to creep through malice into the senses of the soul, but it knows not how to flow by nature into the soul's recesses. And therefore human minds and breasts receive such unclean spirits not by an infusion of natures, but conceive them by the perversity of their wills. It is therefore manifest that they cannot penetrate the substances of souls, whose consciences they cannot know.
But if at any time it happens that the demons know something, it is by reason of the fitness arising from perdition, not by reason of the power of nature. Therefore the divine power alone, which is also in the Holy Spirit, mingles itself, infused into and poured around rational creatures—just as in a peculiar way it rested with overflowing grace in that body of the Lord's manhood taken from Mary His mother, as the Son says of Himself: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me' (Luke 4). If, then, the Holy Spirit were a being of subject condition, as they say, it would be as impossible as unworthy of God that any creature should fill the soul or body in which the Son of God, that is, God, already dwelt; in whom now, says the Apostle, dwelt bodily the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2).
If the Holy Spirit is a creature, how can corruption possess incorruption, and the frail condition possess what is capable of majesty? If the Holy Spirit is one of a creature made from the common throng of created things, how is the creature presumed to be made equal as it were with the Creator, that is, with the Son of God—the servant with the Lord—as one lodging in the soul of the Savior; and as though the presence of the Author did not suffice for Himself in Him, does a servant come as an addition to the sum of holiness? It is not so. But the heavenly company truly acknowledges the temple as its own associate. Nor is it any wonder if in that illustrious soul of the blessed body the Son and the Holy Spirit obtain one dwelling, since heaven also is plainly common to them. CHAPTER II.
Whether, according to the opinion of the ignorant, the Holy Spirit was made incarnate as the Son was, because He too came upon Mary; or whether the Son alone was begotten of the Virgin. But it is said: If the Holy Spirit dwelt in the body and soul of the redeemed, then the Spirit Himself also will seem to have undergone incarnation. It is not so.
For before the beginnings of the creation, the body of Mary is filled by the Holy Spirit, and amid the beginnings of the creation the Son of the Virgin is conceived with the Holy Spirit cooperating; but as belonging specially to the person of the Son, to be possessed for nine months, and going forth into the light with that same Son He is infused. The Spirit's person does not assume the fellowship of that time within the secret of the virginal womb; therefore the man whom the Son of God assumes at His very beginnings, the Holy Spirit entered not as one assuming, but as sanctifier. For the One is born, the Other is infused. Of the Son of the Virgin, the soul or flesh can be called personally and specially the soul or flesh of the Son of God; but the Holy Spirit can in no way be called soul or flesh.
In whom the Son of God is therefore said as the God of glory to have been crucified, it can in no way be said that the Holy Spirit suffered in Him. Therefore there is a diversity of works, not a diversity of substances. For just as we cannot say that either the Father descended in the form of a dove, or that the Son spoke in the voice of the Father when He said: 'This is my Son' (Matt. 3), so you cannot assert the Holy Spirit either to have been born of the Virgin, or to have specially dwelt in the flesh of the Redeemer, or to have been crucified in His passion, or to have been restored to the body in the resurrection, or to have been raised to heavenly things in the ascension.
These things must of necessity be assigned to the work and person of the Son; but to be ascribed to the Holy Spirit—though the unity of will be preserved—does not fit. Amid these things Macedonius asserts that the Holy Spirit is a creature. Wherever he may seem to begin, only let him presume to do nothing by his own words, nor by argument to pass beyond the sacred pages, but let him bring forth, if he can, authority through all from testimonies, which against the faith of the whole world might prevail both in number and in force. Without doubt there is need of great and copious and very evident proofs, that anyone should convince Him to be one of the number of creatures, whom all the kingdoms of the earth celebrate together with the Father and the Son as of the same honor and glory;
whom the Catholic Church, regenerated in Him, acknowledges as its Creator. And rightly it does not hesitate to believe Him to be Author, whom it perceives to be Restorer. CHAPTER III. The objection of Macedonius, by which he impiously asserts the Holy Spirit to be a more excellent creature. 'A creature,' he says, 'I call Him, but more excellent than all creatures.' We have said beforehand that we set down our action not by our own persuasions, but by Catholic oracles. As we treat therefore of God, let prophet, apostle, evangelist answer. You call Him a creature more excellent than all creatures. Show in what books you have read words about the Holy Spirit. I think you will teach it not in the Old, not in the New?
Since therefore you are not able to bring it forth, while you do not unfold your own, we confirm ours. While you do not prove Him a creature, even with us being silent you show Him to be Creator. And so, since this assertion of yours does not pertain to the Catholic sense, since it pertains not at all to the Christian institution, recognize it as a fabrication of the devil, who, where he has seen the soul empty of the Holy Spirit, envies it as it were with hostile guests of sevenfold wickedness. For he who excludes the One receives the other. In him was that more excellent creature, who, shining forth in heavenly brightness, conscious of his numbers, ignorant of his Author, saw himself to have, knew not himself to have received; and therefore the glory which, blessed, he did not understand, being lifted up he lost, saying thus:
'I will ascend above the stars of the clouds, I will set my throne above, and I will be like the Most High'; here then he had, as I think, none in the creatures superior to himself, he saw none midway between himself and God, in emulation of whom, roused by the goad of pride, he might rise up; and therefore, beholding none standing before him in the order of the heavenly host, he presumed to make himself equal to the very Lord of all things. But if, impatient of a greater, he had caught sight of any one more excellent than himself in heavenly joy, he would have tried rather to compare or prefer himself to him. There are two among the heavenly beings: He who rules, and those who are ruled; no third kind has existed midway between these, which would be higher than the second and lower than the highest.
Of the archangels perhaps you can say 'a more excellent creature,' though they pre-eminence over the rest more by order than by nature. But even the archangels serve the Holy Spirit, one of whom as a minister announced His coming to the blessed Mary. But you say: Behold, where the prophet Amos plainly assigns the Holy Spirit to be a creature, saying thus: 'Behold, I that establish the thunder and create the spirit/wind' (Amos 4). First, it is that sometimes the name 'spirit' can by no means be referred to the person of the sanctifying Spirit, unless you add either 'the Spirit of God,' or 'the Holy Spirit,' or 'the Spirit blows where it wills,' that is, unless you add the dignity either of the work or of His proper name.
Then, if you regard the order of the reading, it showed this 'more excellent creature,' as you assert, to be too despised. For it described it as a creature after the thunder. Whence it would be inconsequent that, according to your sense, He should put this principal work of God after an irrational thing, or associate it with an element. Of the person, I will not say of an angel, but of any just man, this would be unworthy to be believed. Let us therefore judge this more akin and friendly to reason, if after the thunderings we understand the blasts of winds to be signified, as in the psalms: 'The spirit of storms which do His word' (Ps. 148); or that: 'The sulphur of the spirit of storms' (Ps. 10); or: 'With a vehement spirit thou shalt break the ships of Tarshish' (Ps. 47).
'Spirit' is understood in diverse ways, when it is not specially designated with its prerogatives. But, leaving these things aside, inquire of the truth of the Hebrew rendering, and there you will detect the confusing error of your persuasion. For there you will find it thus said: 'Behold, I that form the mountains and create the wind.' See with how bare, against God, and with how empty words you have believed. See with how great an argument you have armed yourself against the power of majesty, and after those things you do not fear to cling about so weak a little branch, you who hang over so dreadful a precipice. CHAPTER IV. Macedonius, asserting a duality, denies that the Holy Spirit has His own person.
Next, you introduce a duality, and you say that the Holy Spirit does not have His own person; nor do you perceive that you have lost the grace of regeneration, you who tend toward an offense against regeneration—against Him whom the divine truth attests to be united in common with itself in majesty and power, saying thus: 'Go,' He says, 'baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In the name,' He says, 'of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' (Matt., last chapter). The singularity of the name speaks unity; the diversity of the appellations, the Trinity. In the name, therefore, one; but in the distinction of persons, not one. What is in the three the prerogative of one name, but the undivided concord of deity:
make a step, if you can, where besides the one God—with God Himself attesting this very thing—you find nothing. You hear 'Three,' lest the Sabellian impiety confound and mingle the unity. You hear 'One,' lest the Arian perversity divide the Trinity. You hear 'Holy Spirit,' that the expressed property of a distinct name may transfix Macedonius. And so it is not the work of a creature, but the immutable work of the Creator, that is wrought where the abolition and remission of sins is bestowed. Yet in this indivisible embrace of majesty, in the property of person another is the Father, another is the Son, another is the Holy Spirit; but in the unity not another thing. He who indeed, if He were not God, could not, like the Father and the Son, have His own person;
finally, when the Word passes into flesh, and God puts on the habit of man, and 'He hath set His tabernacle round about Him,' and wraps His splendor in the darkness of our frailty, and 'puts darkness His hiding-place,' the substance is indeed twofold, of God and of man, yet nevertheless one person. For what reason? Because, while taking the form of a servant, God is joined to a servant, the lowliness of the lesser is hidden within the reverence of the greater, and being emptied is consumed by the light of the superior; and thus the humanity, with the divinity overshadowing or eminent, does not obtain the property of person. There, then, can be a parity of persons, where there subsists an equality of merits and dignities.
And therefore you should know that the Holy Spirit, together with the Father and the Son, possesses one prerogative of majesty—Him whom you see to obtain the proper right of person. But if anyone object and say: If in Christ, equally God and man, we speak of two substances, why do we not by like reasoning believe two persons? It is not so. For he who makes two persons in Christ introduces the impiety of a quaternity, which the nature of things by no means receives. Out of two rational and diverse substances—especially of God and man, of Creator and creature—one cannot be made; but out of two persons, one can be made, as we read that the Head and the Body, Christ and the Church, hold one person. 'For they shall be,' it says, 'two in one flesh.'
And just as among us men the son of the head of a household has no place of his own person beside the father, or a servant beside his master, so in God and man the substance is indeed twofold, but the person is not twofold; because a person can consume a person, but a substance cannot consume a substance. For a person is a matter of right, a substance a matter of nature. In this place it seems necessary that we should assert by testimonies in Christ the Lord, equally and at once, one person of God and man, and two substances. Grant one person of the Redeemer, God and man. The Apostle says: 'For if they had known the wisdom of God, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.'
If you ask how the inviolable could suffer, and the incomprehensible be crucified, the unity of person brings it about, that what the man endured, God is believed to have endured. Likewise, when the evangelist recalls: 'No one has ascended except He who descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven': how does he here call Him the Son of man before the day of His passion or resurrection or ascension, and assert that He descended from heaven, and remains in the heavens, unless the reason of truth resolves this through the unity of person? Just as in another place the person of the head and of the body is joined together, when it is read: 'For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat. I thirsted, and you gave me to drink.' What does the unity of person say? Man is fed, and God is refreshed.
The foot is set, and the head testifies that it feels the soothing. He says therefore: 'They would never have crucified the Lord of glory.' And conversely: 'No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.' See how through the unity of person human things are mingled with divine, and divine with human. God is crucified, and man is recorded to descend from heaven and to remain in heaven. Since these things are so, let us perceive from the sacred volumes the distinction of the twofold substance. Blessed Moses therefore says: 'You shall eat the head with the feet, and you shall devour its entrails' (Exod. 12). In the feet let us believe the humanity, and in the head the majesty.
So it comes about that, while we recognize by searching faith these things lying hidden within the letter, we take the entrails, that is, the hidden things of the mysteries. For the zeal of searching is understood as the avidity of devouring. As also in another place the same revealer of the sacraments intimates the resolution of the twofold substance, saying: 'The foxes have holes, and the birds of heaven nests; but the Son of man has not where to lay his head' (Matt. 8, Luke 9). That is: the crafty heresies and the dark or aerial powers have set their seat in human breasts by a deep damnation; but in the hearts of the faithful, who behold the man in flesh, they do not believe that God lies hidden within the man;
for 'holes' and 'nests' designate not transitory and momentary dwellings, but ones founded on lasting and secure possession, which multiply the serpentine nourishments of vices. For the Apostle plainly added two substances, with the obscurity of the mystery removed, saying thus: 'Our fathers... of whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever' (Rom. 9). But you say: The Apostle confesses only two persons in the volume of his works, as he speaks to the Corinthians: 'Paul, called an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God.' And to the Galatians: 'Paul, an apostle, not of men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead.'
And again: 'One God the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him.' According to these you say that no mention is made of the Holy Spirit. To say it briefly: you have forgotten that the Apostle, full of the Holy Spirit, was preaching these things concerning the Father and the Son with that very Spirit inspiring within him. To one speaking, therefore, of the operation of the Father and the Son, He also was not lacking who was dictating the things to be spoken, according to that word: 'No one says, Lord Jesus, except in the Holy Spirit.'
He therefore who is about to believe, or to confess, or to preach Christ, you see that he must first have the Holy Spirit within himself. Do not therefore disgrace your faith, because at times, without the mention of the Holy Spirit, mention is made of the Father and of the Son. For often, with the name of the Father suppressed, the operation of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is preached. St. Ananias says to Paul: 'Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus has sent me, who appeared to you on the way by which you were coming, that you may see and be filled with the Holy Spirit.' Here openly is a connection of two persons. Behold, Paul, blinded by Christ, is reproved; illuminated by the Holy Spirit, he is filled; and no mention of the Father is here inserted.
Likewise, when Paul questioned certain of the disciples, in what they were baptized—those whom it was established had been baptized after the ascension of the Lord with the baptism of John, after the baptism of the Trinity had been preached—since even that mystery by which John was accustomed to baptize, that is, in Him who is to come, was proved to have been omitted in their baptism, the apostle Paul saying: 'John indeed baptized, but in Him who is to come' (Acts 19), that is to say: 'You were not baptized thus.' When Paul questioned these: 'Have you received the Holy Spirit upon believing?'—those who indeed after the baptism of the Savior, through the laying on of hands, had been duly baptized, confess. But they answered: 'We have not even heard whether there be a Holy Spirit.'
Having heard these things, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Note that those who are baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus afterward receive the Holy Spirit, and the prophetic power from the invocation of the Paraclete. Truly God is He who is not read of after the gift of God, but only, as it must be believed, when the Holy Spirit had come upon them with the Son, then they spoke with tongues and prophesied. See how great is the power of the Holy Spirit. In baptism the remission of sins is granted; in the coming of the Holy Spirit the gifts of virtues are conferred; and by the confirmed the miracles of signs are celebrated.
For those who are strangers to the truth are accustomed to cavil even about syllables. For since we know it absolutely said of the Trinity, that 'of Him, and through Him, and in Him are all things' (Rom. 11, i.e. 8/11), they assert that 'of Him' is more than 'through Him,' and likewise that this preposition, namely 'through,' is of greater prerogative than 'in Him.' But if they think that 'in Him' is said of the Holy Spirit with a diminution of power, let them hear the magnificence of this preposition, and let them accept that even according to their own assertion it is to be understood of the Holy Spirit. 'In Him,' it says, 'we live, we are moved, and we are' (Acts 17). And rightly in Him we live, we are moved, and we are, in whom we have been repaired and regenerated.
But we acknowledge that 'through Him' also is to be referred to the Holy Spirit, as you have: 'To one indeed through the Spirit is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge' (1 Cor. 12). Likewise to the Hebrews: 'Who through the Holy Spirit offered Himself unspotted to God.' And again: 'The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us.' For if we understand it also of the Father, we likewise find it said 'of Him' and 'of the Holy Spirit.' As we have in the Gospel of John: 'That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit' (John 3). And at the conclusion of the chapter: 'So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.'
So therefore it is not prejudicial to the Holy Spirit, when, with His name suppressed, the works of the Father and the Son are recalled, just as the Father and the Son are not denied when the work and power of the Holy Spirit is specially mentioned, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: 'You shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not after many of these days' (Acts 1). As also in the Gospel concerning the singular person of the Holy Spirit it is contained: 'Unless one is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God' (John 3). Shall the Father and the Son, in this place, because they are not at all named, be believed to have been wanting to so great and so divine a gift? It is not so.
For without doubt, while they are joined to the Holy Spirit, with whom they are of one substance, in his mysteries and benefits, even if not by explicit mention, they are nonetheless made present by the unity of devotion and of operation. CHAPTER V. The objection that the saying which we read, 'Unless one is born again of water and of the Holy Spirit,' bears witness that water and the Holy Spirit are alike a creature. But you say: The Holy Spirit is a creature to such a degree that he appears to be joined to the element of water, which here is placed first in place and order, according to the gospel saying mentioned above: 'Unless one is born again of water and of the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God' (ibid.).
For it is plain that whoever says these things knows neither the divine power in the Holy Spirit nor the very rationale of baptism in Christ (Rom. VI). But if you ask how we are able to die and rise again with Christ, take heed. All of us who are immersed in the sacred font imitate the death and burial of the Redeemer, just as the same Apostle says: 'Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into his death? For we were buried together with him through baptism into death' (Rom. VI). For just as he, by a three-day death, was laid in the sepulchre, so we also, laid by a threefold immersion within the substance of water, that is, of a kindred created element, are buried while we descend, and are raised up while we emerge.
And so through water the imitation of burial is celebrated; through the Holy Spirit the truth of life and the hope of eternal salvation is conferred. In short, let the invocation of the Holy Spirit be removed, and let us see whether the mere pouring of that water can avail anything. A creature, then, is that which renders the office of burying; God is he who bestows the benefit of being reborn. Whom therefore you perceive to be the parent of restoration, acknowledge him also to be the author of resurrection. Of him the prophet prophesies and thus speaks to the Father: 'Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth' (Ps. CIII). What difference is there between the operation of water and of the Holy Spirit? Through water we seem to be led down into the tomb; through the Holy Spirit we seem to be prepared for the kingdom.
CHAPTER VI. Wherein it is asked whether the appellation of the Holy Spirit should be reckoned a surname or a proper name. But amid these things you believe it must be asked whether the appellation 'Holy Spirit'—who must necessarily be called God—is a name or perhaps a surname. But I know that what we are wont to attach to a name among men does not befit the majesty of God; in his name whatever there is is by no means an adjective, but without doubt is naturally everlasting. Even in the discipline of grammar it calls some nouns common, that is, appellative, and others special, that is, it names them proper. Let us see whether in this matter we can find anything similar among our own things. Grant in God a special or proper name, that is, Father and Son and Holy Spirit.
To such a degree are these proper that neither can the Father be said of the Son, nor is the Holy Spirit easily read of the Father. Likewise grant the proper terms: unbegotten, proceeding from both. Again, grant a general and common name: majesty, immensity, fullness, one, only, God. But when you hear 'one,' here no number is begun, but infinite perfection is gathered up. What is 'one,' if not an incommunicable name, which admits neither a later nor an earlier? What is 'one,' if not a simple, uncomposed, and undivided substance? What is 'one,' if not the incommunicable and unequal, and ever the same, who can never be diverse from himself? And thus the common appellation [signifies] unity. When therefore you say 'Father, Son,'
and 'Holy Spirit,' you have likewise set forth the persons of each individually. When you say 'one God,' you have shown the common substance of the Trinity, the common glory. Here therefore ignorance has spread over itself the night of error, while, suppressing the title of majesty, it esteems the Holy Spirit only in that name which, as we said, is proper to him, rather than in that which is common to him with the Father and the Son. CHAPTER VII. That the Holy Spirit specially fills the prophets, and is alike believed and called God, is proved by clear testimonies. Since through Moses and David and Isaiah, or the other prophets, the Holy Spirit is reported to have spoken in a special manner, the divine oracles profess that God has spoken, as is frequently shown in the volume of the Pentateuch;
'The Lord spoke to Moses,' it says, 'saying.' Let us inquire more carefully whether the Holy Spirit speaks specially in the prophets. We have, as we have said before, in the Acts of the Apostles, where Paul argues with the Jews: 'Well,' he says, 'did the Holy Spirit speak through Isaiah to our fathers: Hearing you shall hear, and you shall not understand' (Acts, last chapter). And in the same lesson: 'Men and brethren, the Scripture must be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David' (Acts I). And in the Epistle of Peter we read: 'For prophecy was never brought by human will, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit' (II Pet. I). Let us acknowledge that prophetic grace clearly pertains to the power of the Holy Spirit.