IX.
If
any man shall say that the
one Lord Jesus Christ was glorified by the Holy Ghost, so that he used
through him a power not his own and from him received power against
unclean spirits and power to work miracles before men and shall not
rather con
fess that it was his own
Spirit through which he worked these divine signs; let him be
anathema.
Notes.
Nestorius.
IX.
If
anyone says that the form of
a servant is of like nature with the Holy Ghost, and not rather that it
owes its union with the Word which has existed since the conception, to
his mediation, by which it works miraculous healings among men, and
possesses the power of expelling demons; let him be anathema.
Petavius.
The scope of this anathematism is to shew that the Word
of God, when he assumed flesh remaining what he was, and lacking
nothing which the Father possessed except only paternity, had as his
own the Holy Spirit which is from him and substantially abides in
him. From this it follows that through him, as through a power
and strength which was his own, and not one alien or adventitious, he
wrought his wonders and cast forth devils, but he did not receive that
Holy Spirit and his power as formerly the Prophets had done, or as
afterwards his disciples did, as a kind of gift (
beneficii
loco
).
The Orientals objected that St. Cyril here contradicts
himself, for here he says that Christ did not work his wonders by the
Holy Ghost and in another place he frankly confesses that he did so
work them. But the whole point is what is intended by working
through the Holy Ghost. For the Apostles worked miracles through
the Holy Ghost but as by a power external to themselves, but not so
Christ. When Christ worked wonders through the Holy Ghost, he was
working through a power which was his own, viz.: the Third Person
of the Holy Trinity; from whom he never was and never could be
separated, ever abiding with him and the Eternal Father in the Divine
Unity.
The Westerns have always pointed to this anathematism as
shewing that St. Cyril recognized the eternal relation of the Holy
Spirit as being from the Son.