Discourse, Book I, chapter 34: The spirit of spirits: a conclusion (part 2 of 2)

But Ambrose in his Book De Spiritu Sancto, lib. 2. cap. 7. doth rightly answer, That by Spirit in this place is meant the Wind: for if the Prophets purpose and will had been to speak of the Holy Spirit, he would not have begun with Thunder, nor have ended with light and clouds. Howbeit, the same father saith, If any suppose that these words are to be drawn unto the interpretation of the Holy Spirit, because the Prophet saith, Shewing unto men their Christ; he ought also to draw these words unto the mystery of the Lords incarnation: and he expoundeth Thunder to be the words of the Lord, and Spirit to be the reasonable and perfect soul. But the former interpretation is certain and convenient with the words of the Prophet, by whom there is no mention made of Christ; but the power of God is set forth in his works. Behold (saith the Prophet) he that formeth the Mountains, and createth the Wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, which maketh the morning darkness, and walketh upon the high places of the earth, the Lord God of Hosts is his Name. In this sort Santes a right skilful man in the Hebrew tongue translateth this place of the Prophet. But admit this place were written of the Holy Spirit, and were not appliable either to the Wind, or to the Lords Incarnation: yet doth it not follow that the Holy Spirit is a creature; because this word of Creating doth not alwayes signifie a making of something out of nothing; as Eusebius dxpounding these wrrds; [The Lord created me in the beginning of his wayes] writeth thus, The Prophet in the Person of God, saying, Behold I am he that made the Thunder, and created the Spirit, and shewed unto men their Christ: this word created is not so to be taken, as that it is to be concluded thereby, that the same was not before. For God hath not so created the Spirit, fithence by the same he hath shewed and declared his Christ unto al men. Neither was it a thing of late beginning under the Son: but it was before all beginning, and was then sent, when the Apostles were gathered together, When a sound like Thunder came from Heaven, as it had been the coming of a mighty wind: this word created being used for sent down, for appointed, ordained, &c. and the word Thunder signifying in another kind of manner the Preaching of the Gospel. The like saying is that of the Psalmist, A clean heart create in me O God: wherein he prayed not as one having no heart, but as one that had such a heart as needed purifying, as needed perfecting: and this phrase also of the scripture, that he might create two in one new man; that is, that he might joyn, couple, or gather together, &c.

Furthermore, the Pneumatomachi by these testimonies insuing endeavour to prove the Holy Spirit to be a creature. Out of John the 1. ch. By this word were all things made, and without it nothing was made. Out of 1 Cor. 8. We have one God the Father, even he from whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we by him, Out of Col. 1 By him were all things made, things in heaven, and things in earth, visible and invisible, &c. Now if all things were made by the Son, it followeth that by him the Holy Spirit was also made.

Whereto I answer, that when all things are said to be made by the Son, that same universal proposition is restrained by John himself to a certain kind of things. Without him (saith the Evangelist) was nothing made that was made. Therefore it is first to be shewed that the Holy Spirit was made, and then will we conclude out of John, that if he were made, he was made of the Son. The Scripture doth no where say, that the Holy Spirit was made of the Father or of the Son, but to proceed, to come, and to be sent from them both. Now if these universal propositions are to suffer no restraint, it shall follow that the Father was made of the Son; than the which what is more absurd and wicked?

Again, they object out of Mat. 11. None knoweth the Son but the Father, and none the Father but the Son; to wit, of and by himself; for otherwise both the angels, and to whomsoever else it shall please the Son to reveal the Father, these do know both the Father and the Son. Now if so be the Spirit be not equal with the Father and the Son in knowledge, he is not only unequal and lesser than they, but also no God; for ignorance is not incident unto God.

Whereto I answer, that where in holy Scripture we do meet with universal propositions negative or exclusive, they are not to be expounded of one person, so as the rest are excluded; but creatures or false gods are to be excluded, and whatsoever else is without or beside the essence and being of God. Reasons to prove and confirme this interpretation, I could bring very many, whereof I will adde some for example. In the seventh of John it is said, When Christ shall come, none shall know from whence he is; notwithstanding which words the Jews thought that neither God nor his Angels should be ignorant from whence Christ should be. In the fourth to the Galatians; A mans Covenant or testament confirmed with authority no body doth abrogate, or adde any thing thereunto. No just man doth so; but tyrants and truce-breakers care not for covenants. In John eight, Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. And yet it is not to be supposed that a multitude of people was not present, and the Disciples of Christ likewise; but the word Solus, alone, is referred to the womans accusers, who withdrew themselves away every one, and departed. In the sixt of Mark, When it was evening, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone upon land: he was not alone upon land or shore, for the same was not utterly void of dwellers; but he had not any of his Disciples with him, nor any body to carry him a shipboard unto his Disciples. Many phrases or forms of speeches like unto these are to be found in the sacred scriptures, and in authors both Greek and Latin; whereby we understand, that neither universal negative nor exclusive particles are strictly to be urged, but to be explained in such sort as the matter in hand will bear. When as therefore the Son alone is said to know the Father, and it is demanded whether the holy Spirit is debarred from knowing the Father; out of other places of Scripture judgment is to be given in this case. In some places the Holy Spirit is counted and reckoned with the Father and the Son jointly; wherefore he is not to be separated. Elsewhere also it is attributed to the holy spirit that he alone doth know the things which be of God, and searcheth the deep secrets of God; wherfore from him the knowing of God is not to be excluded.

They do yet further object, that it is not convenient or fit for God after the manner of suters to humble and cast down himself; but the holy Spirit doth so, praying and intreating for us with unspeakable groans, Rom. 8. Ergo the holy Spirit is not God.

Whereunto I answer, that the Holy Spirit doth pray and intreat, insomuch as he provoketh us to pray, and maketh us to groan and sigh. Oftentimes also in the Scriptures is that action or deed attributed unto God, which we being stirred up and moved by him doe bring to passe. So it is said of God unto Abraham, Now I know that thou fearest God: and yet before he would have sacrificed Isaac, God knew the very heart of Abraham: and therefore this word Cognovi, I know, is as much as Cognoscere feci, I have made or caused to know. And that the Spirit to pray and intreat, is the same with that to make to pray and intreat; the apostle teacheth even there, writing, that we have received the spirit of adoption, in whom we cry Abba Father. Where it is manifest that it is we which cry, the Holy-ghost provoking and forcing us thereunto.

Howbeit they goe further, and frame this reason, Whosoever is sent, the same is inferior and lesser than he of whom he is sent; and furthermore he is of a comprehensible substance, because he passeth by local motion from place to place: but the Holy Spirit is sent of the Father and the Son, John 14, 15. & 16. It is poured forth and shed upon men. Acts 10. Ergo, the Holy Spirit is lesser than the Father and the Son, and of a comprehensible nature, and consequently not very God.

Whereto I answer, first, that he which is sent is not alwayes lesser than he that sendeth: to prove which position any mean wit may inferre many instances. Furthermore, touching the sending of the Holy Spirit, we are here to imagine no changing or shifting of place. For if the Spirit when he goeth from the Father and is sent, changeth his place, then must the Father also be in a place, that he may leave it and goe to another. And as for the incomprehensible nature of the Spirit, he cannot leaving his place passe unto another. Therefore the sending of the Spirit is the eternal and unvariable will of God, to do something by the Holy Spirit; and the revealing and executing of this will by the operation and working of the Spirit. The Spirit was sent to the Apostles; which Spirit was present with them, sith it is present every where; but then according to the will of God the Father he shewed himself present and powerful.

Some man may say, If sending be a revealing and laying open of presence and power, then may the Father be said to be sent, because he himself is also revealed. I answer, that when the Spirit is said to be sent, not only the revealing, but the order also of his revealing is declared; because the will of the Father and of the Son, of whom he is sent, going before, not in time, but in order of persons, the Spirit doth reveal himself, the Father, and also the Son. The Father revealeth himself by others, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, so that his will goeth before. Therefore sending is the common work of all the three persons; howbeit, for order of doing, it is distinguished by divers names. The Father will reveal hims[…]lf unto men with the Son and the Spirit, and be powerful in them, and therefo[…] is said to send. The Son doth assent unto the will of the Father, and will that […] be done by themselves, which God will to be done by them; these are said to be sent. And because the will of the Son doth goe before the Spirit in order of persons, he is also said to send the Spirit.

Yet for all this they alledge, That if the Spirit had perfection, then would he speak of himself, and not stand in need alwayes of anothers admonishment: but he speaketh not of himself, but speaketh what he heareth, as Christ expresly testifieth, John 16. Ergo he is unperfect, and whatsoever he hath, it is by partaking, and consequently he is not God.

Whereto I answer, that this argument is stale: for it was objected by Heretiques long ago against them that held the true opinion, as Cyrill saith; who answereth, that by the words of Christ is rather to be gathered, that the Son and the Spirit are of the same substance. For, the Spirit is named the minde of Christ, 1 Cor. 2. and therefore he speaketh not of his own proper will, or against his will in whom and from whom he is; but hath all his will and working naturally proceeding from the substance as it were of him.

Lastly they argue thus; Every thing is either unbegotten or unborn, or begotten and created; the Spirit is not unbegotten, for then he were the Father; and so there should be two without boginning; neither is he begotten, for then he is begotter of the Father, and so there shall be two Sons, both Brothers; or he is begotten of the Son, and then shall he be Gods Nephew, than the which what can be imagined more absurd? Ergo, he is created.

Whereto I answer, that the division or distribution is unperfect; for that member is omitted which is noted of the very best Divine that ever was, even Jesus Christ our Saviour; namely, to have proceeded, or proceeding: That same Holy Spirit (saith he) which proceedeth from the Father. Which place Nazianzen doth thus interpret. The Spirit, because he proceedeth from thence, is not a creature; and because he is not begotten, he is not the Son; but because he is the mean of begotten and unbegotten, he shall be God, &c.

And thus having avoided all these cavils of the Pneumatomachi, a Sect of Heretiques too too injurious to the Holy Spirit, insomuch as they seek what they can, to rob and pull from him the right of his divinity; I will all Christians to take heed of their pestilent opinions, the poison whereof though to them that be resolved in the Truth it can do little hurt, yet to such as stand upon a wavering point it can do no great good. Having thus farr waded against, and overthrown their opinons; I must needs exhort all to whom the reading hereof shall come, that first they consider with themselves what a reverend mystery all that hitherto hath been said in this chapter concerneth; namely, The Spirit of Sanctification, and that they so ponder places to and fro, as that they reserve unto the holy Spirit the glorious title of Divinity, which by nature is to him appropriate; esteeming of those Pneumatomachi or Theomachi, as of Swine, delighting more in the durty draffe of their devices than in the fair Fountain water of Golds Word; yea, condemning them of grosser ignorance than the old Philosophers, who though they favoured little of heavenly Theology, yet some illumination they had of the Holy and Divine Spirit; marry it was somewhat misty, dark, lame, and limping; nevertheless, what it was, and how much or little soever it was, they gave thereunto a due reverence, in that they acknowledged and intituled it Animam Mundi, The soul or life of the World, and (as Nazianzen witnesseth) [non-Latin script], The mind of the universal, and the outward breath, or the breath that cometh from without. Porphyrie expounding the opinion of Plato, who was not utterly blind in this mystery, saith, That the divine substance doth proceed and extend to three subsistencies and beings; and that God is chiefly and principally good, next him the second Creator, and the third to be the soul of the world; for he holdeth, that the divinity doth exttend even to this foul. As for Hermes Trismegistus, he saith, That all things have need of this Spirit; for according to his worthiness he supporteth all, he quickneth and sustaineth all, and he is derived from the holy Fountain, giving breath and life unto all, and evermore remaineth continual, plentiful, and unemptyed.

And here by the way I give you a note worth reading and considering; namely, how all Nations in a manner, by a kind of heavenly influence, agree in writing and speaking the Name of God with no more than four letters. As for example, the Egyptians do call him Theut, the Persians call him Syre, the Jews express his unspeakable name as well as they can by the word Adonai consisting of four vowels; the Arabians call him Alla, the Mahometists call him Abdi, the Greeks call him Theos, the Latines call him Deus, &c. This although it be not so proper to our present purpose, (yet because we are in hand with the Holy Spirits Deity) is not altogether impertinent. But why God would have his Name as it were universally bounded within the number of four letters, I can give sundry reasons, which requires too long a discourse of words by digression: and therefore I will conceal them for this time. These opinions of Philosophers I have willingly remembred, that it might appear, that the doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit is very ancient; which they have taken either out of Moses writings, or out of the works of the old Fathers, published in and set forth in Books, though not wholly, fully, and perfectly understood and known; and also that our Pneumatomachi may see themselves to be more doltish in divine matters than the Heathen, who will not acknowledg that essential and working power of the divinity whereby all things are quickened: which the Heathen did after a sort see; after a sort (I say) because they separated the soul of the world (which they also call the begotten mind) from the most soveraign and unbegotten God, and imagined certain differences of degrees, and (as Cyrill saith) did Arrianize in the Trinity.

So then I conclude against these Pneumatomachi, that in so much as they imitate the old Gyants, who piling up Pelion upon Ossa, and them both upon Olympus, attempted by scaling the Heavens to pull Jupiter out of his Throne of Estate, and to spoil him of his principality, and were notwithstanding their strength whereby they were able to carry huge Hills on their shoulders, overwhelmed with those Mountains and squeized under the weight of them even to the death; so these Pneumatomachi, being Enemies both to the Holy Spirit, and no friends to the Holy Church (for then would they confess the Trinity in Unity, and the Unity in Trinity) and consequently also the Deity of the Holy Spirit) deserve to be consumed with the fire of his mouth, the heat whereof by no means can be slacked, quenched, or avoided. For there is nothing more unnatural, nothing more monstrous, then against the Person of the Deity (I mean the Spirit of Sanctification) to oppose mans power, mans wit, mans policy, &c. which was well signified by that Poetical fiction of the Giants, who were termed Anguipedes, Snake-footed; which as Joachimus Camerarius expoundeth of wicked Counsellours, to whose filthy perswasions Tyrants do trust as unto their feet; and James Sadolet interpreteth of Philosophers, who trusting over-much unto their own wits, become so bold in challenging praise for their wisdom, that in fine all turneth to folly and confusion; so I expound of Hereticks and Schismaticks, who either by corrupt doctrine, or by maintaining precise opinions, or by open violence, &c. assay to overthrow the true Religion, to break the unity of the Church, to deny Caesar his homage, and God his duty, &c. and therefore let Jovis fulmem, wherewith they were slain, assure these that there is Divina ultio due to all such, as dare in the fickleness of their fancies arrear themselves against the Holy Spirit; of whom sith they are ashamed hereupon earth (otherwise they would confidently and boldly confess him both with mouth and pen) he will be ashamed of them in Heaven, where they are like to be so farre from having any society with the Saints, that their portion shall be even in full and shaken measure with miscreants and Infidels. And therefore let us, if we will discern and try the Spirits whether they be of God or no, seek for illumination of this inlightning Spirit, which as it bringeth light with it to discover all Spirits, so it giveth such a fiery heat, as that no false spirit can abide by it for fear of burning. Howbeit the Holy Spirit must be in us, otherwise this prerogative of trying spirits will not fall to our lot.

But here some will peradventure move a demand, and do ask, How the Holy Spirit is in us, considering that Infiniti ad finitum nulla est proportio, neque loci angustia quod immensum est potest circumscribi: of that which is infinite, to that which is finite there is no proportion; neither can that which is unmeasurable be limited or bounded within any precinct of place, &c.

I answer, That the most excellent Father for Christs sake sendeth him unto us, according as Christ promised us in the person of his Apostles; The Comforter (saith he) which is the Holy Spirit, whom my Father will send in my Name. And as for proportion of that which is infinite to that which is finite, &c. I will in no case have it thought, that the Holy Spirit is in us, as a body placed in a place terminably; but to attribute thereunto, as duly belongeth to the Deity, an ubiquity, or universal presence; not coporally and palpably; but effectually, mightily, mystically, divinely, &c. Yea, and this I may bodldly add, that Christ Jesus sendeth him unto us from the Father: neither is he given us for any other end, but to enrich us abundantly with all good gifts and excellent graces; and (among the rest) with the discerning of Spirits aright, that we be not deceived. And here an end of the first Book.