Chapter XIV.
Besides the evidence adduced above, other passages can
be brought to prove the sovereignty of the Three Persons. Two are
quoted from the Epistles to the Thessalonians, and by collating other
testimonies of the Scriptures it is shown that in them dominion is
claimed for the Spirit as for the other Persons. Then, by
quotation of another still more express passage in the second Epistle
to the Corinthians, it is inferred both that the Spirit is Lord, and
that where the Lord is, there is the Spirit.
94.
God
, then, is
One, without violation of the majesty of the eternal Trinity, as is
declared in the instance set before us. And not in that place
alone do we see the Trinity expressed in the Name of the Godhead; but
both in many places, as we have said also above, and especially in the
epistles which the Apostle wrote to the Thessalonians, he most clearly
set forth the Godhead and sovereignty of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. For you read as follows:
“The Lord make you to increase and
abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, as we also do
toward you, to the stablishing of your hearts without blame in holiness
before God and our Father at the coming of the Lord
Jesus.”
1357
95. Who, then, is the Lord Who makes us to
increase and abound before God and our Father at the coming of the Lord
Jesus? He has named the Father and has named the Son; Whom, then,
has he joined with the Father and the Son except the Spirit? Who
is the Lord Who establishes our hearts in holiness. For holiness
is a grace of the Spirit, as, too, is said farther on: “In
holiness of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”
1358
96. Who, then, do you think is here named
Lord, except the Spirit? And has not God the Father been able to
teach you, Who says: “Upon Whomsoever thou shalt see the
Spirit descending and abiding upon Him, this is He Who baptizeth in the
Holy Spirit”?
1359
For the
Spirit descended in the likeness of a dove,
1360
that He might both bear witness to His wisdom, and perfect the
sacrament of the spiritual laver, and show that His working is one with
that of the Father and the Son.
97. And that you should not suppose that
anything had fallen from the Apostle by oversight, but that he
knowingly and designedly and inspired by the Spirit designated Him
Lord, Whom he felt to be God, he repeated the same in the second
Epistle to the Thessalonians, saying: “But the Lord direct
your hearts in the love of God and in the patience of
Christ.”
1361
If love be
of God and patience of Christ, it ought to be shown Who is the Lord Who
directs, if we deny that the direction is of the Holy
Spirit.
98. But we cannot deny it, since the Lord
said of Him: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but
ye cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of Truth, shall
come, He will lead you into all truth.”
1362
And David says of Him:
“Thy good Spirit shall lead me into the right
way.”
1363
99. See what the voice of the Lord uttered
concerning the Holy Spirit. The Son of God came, and because He
had not yet shed forth the Spirit, He declared that we were living like
little children without the Spirit. He said that the Spirit was
to come Who should make of these little children stronger men, by an
increase, namely, of spiritual age. And this He laid down not
that He might set the power of the Spirit in the first place, but that
He might show that the fulness of strength consists in the knowledge of
the Trinity.
100. It is therefore necessary either that you
mention some fourth person besides the Spirit of whom you ought to be
conscious, or assuredly that you do not consider another to be Lord,
except the Spirit Who has been pointed out.
101. But if you require the plain statement
of the words in which Scripture has spoken of the Spirit as Lord, it
cannot have escaped you that it is written: “Now the Lord
is the Spirit.”
1364
Which the
course of the whole passage shows to have been certainly said of the
Holy Spirit. And so let us consider the apostolic
statement: “As often as Moses is read,” says he,
“a veil is laid over their heart; but when they shall be turned
to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is the
Spirit; but where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty.”
1365
102. So he not only called the Spirit Lord,
but also added: “But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty. So we all with unveiled face, reflecting the glory of
the Lord, are formed anew into the same image from glory to glory, as
from the Lord the Spirit;”
1366
that is,
we who have been before converted to the Lord, so as by spiritual
understanding to see the glory of the Lord, as it were, in the mirror
of the Scriptures, are now being transformed from that glory which
converted us to the Lord, to the heavenly glory. Therefore since
it is the Lord to Whom we are converted, but the Lord is that Spirit by
Whom we are formed anew, who are converted to the Lord, assuredly the
Holy Ghost is pointed out, for He Who forms anew receives those who are
converted. For how should He form again those whom He had not
received.
103. Though why should we seek for the expression
of words, where we see the expression of unity? For although you
may distinguish between Lord and Spirit, you cannot deny that where the
Lord is, there too is the Spirit, and he who has been converted to the
Lord will have been converted to the Spirit. If you cavil at the
letter, you cannot injure the Unity; if you wish to separate the Unity,
you confess the Spirit Himself as the Lord of power.
1357
1 Thess. iii. 12, 13
.
1358
2 Thess. ii. 13
.
1359
S.
John i. 33
.
1360
S.
Luke iii. 22
.
1361
2 Thess. iii. 5
.
1362
S.
John xvi. 12, 13
.
1363
Ps. cxliii.
[cxlii.] 10
.
1364
2 Cor. iii. 17
.
1365
2 Cor. iii. 15–17
.
1366
2 Cor. iii. 17, 18
.