Chapter XXIV.
Proof of the absurdity of the refusal to glorify the
Spirit, from the comparison of things glorified in creation.
55.
Furthermore
man
is “crowned with glory and honour,”
1188
and “glory, honour and peace”
are laid up by promise “to every man that worketh
good.”
1189
There is
moreover a special and peculiar glory for Israelites “to
whom,” it is said “pertaineth the adoption and the
glory…and the service,”
1190
and the Psalmist speaks of a certain glory of his own, “that
my glory may sing praise to Thee
1191
;” and
again “Awake up my glory”
1192
and according to the Apostle there is a certain glory of sun and
moon and stars,
1193
and “the
ministration of condemnation is glorious.”
1194
While then so many things are
glorified, do you wish the Spirit alone of all things to be
unglorified? Yet the Apostle says “the ministration of
the Spirit is glorious.”
1195
How
then can He Himself be unworthy of glory? How according to the
Psalmist can the glory of the just man be great
1196
and according to you the glory of the
Spirit none? How is there not a plain peril from such
arguments of our bringing on ourselves the sin from which there is
no escape? If the man who is being saved by works of
righteousness glorifies even them that fear the Lord
1197
much less would he deprive the Spirit of
the glory which is His due.
Grant, they say, that He is to be glorified, but
not with the Father and the Son. But what reason is there in
giving up the place appointed by the Lord for the Spirit, and inventing
some other? What reason is there for robbing of His share of
glory Him Who is everywhere associated with the Godhead; in the
confession of the Faith, in the baptism of redemption, in the working
of miracles, in the indwelling of the saints, in the graces bestowed on
obedience? For there is not even one single gift which reaches
creation without the Holy Ghost;
1198
when not even
a single word can be spoken in defence of Christ except by them that
are aided by the Spirit, as we have learnt in the Gospels from our Lord
and Saviour.
1199
And I know
not whether any one who has been partaker of the Holy Spirit will
consent that we should overlook all this, forget His fellowship in all
things, and tear the Spirit asunder from the Father and the Son.
Where then are we to take Him and rank Him? With the
creature? Yet all the creature is in bondage, but the Spirit
maketh free. “And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty.”
1200
Many
arguments might be adduced to them that it is unseemly to coordinate
the Holy Spirit with created nature, but for the present I will pass
them by. Were I indeed to bring forward, in a manner befitting
the
dignity of the
discussion, all the proofs always available on our side, and so
overthrow the objections of our opponents, a lengthy dissertation would
be required, and my readers might be worn out by my prolixity. I
therefore propose to reserve this matter for a special
treatise,
1201
and to apply myself
to the points now more immediately before us.
56. Let us then examine the points one by
one. He is good by nature, in the same way as the Father is good,
and the Son is good; the creature on the other hand shares in goodness
by choosing the good. He knows “The deep things of
God;”
1202
the creature
receives the manifestation of ineffable things through the
Spirit. He quickens together with God, who produces and preserves
all things alive,
1203
and together with
the Son, who gives life. “He that raised up Christ from the
dead,” it is said, “shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by the spirit that dwelleth in you;”
1204
and again “my sheep hear my voice,…and I give unto them
eternal life;”
1205
but “the
Spirit” also, it is said, “giveth life,”
1206
and again “the Spirit,” it is
said, “is life, because of righteousness.”
1207
And the Lord bears witness that
“it is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth
nothing.”
1208
How then
shall we alienate the Spirit from His quickening power, and make Him
belong to lifeless nature? Who is so contentious, who is so
utterly without the heavenly gift,
1209
and unfed by
God’s good words, who is so devoid of part and lot in eternal
hopes, as to sever the Spirit from the Godhead and rank Him with the
creature?
57. Now it is urged that the Spirit is in us
as a gift from God, and that the gift is not reverenced with the same
honour as that which is attributed to the giver. The Spirit is a
gift of God, but a gift of life, for the law of “the Spirit of
life,” it is said, “hath made” us
“free;”
1210
and a gift of
power, for “ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is
come upon you.”
1211
Is He on this
account to be lightly esteemed? Did not God also bestow His Son
as a free gift to mankind? “He that spared not His own
Son,” it is said, “but delivered Him up for us all, how
shall He not with Him also freely give us all
things?”
1212
And in
another place, “that we might truly know the things that are
freely given us of God,”
1213
in
reference to the mystery of the Incarnation. It follows then
that the maintainers of such arguments, in making the greatness of
God’s loving kindness an occasion of blasphemy, have really
surpassed the ingratitude of the Jews. They find fault with
the Spirit because He gives us freedom to call God our Father.
“For God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into” our
“hearts crying Abba, Father,”
1214
that the voice of the Spirit may become the very voice of them that
have received him.
1188
Ps. viii. 5
.
1189
Rom. ii. 10
.
1190
Rom. ix. 4
.
1191
Ps. xxix. 12
.
1192
Ps. lvii. 8
.
1193
cf
.
1 Cor. xv.
41
.
1194
2 Cor. iii.
9
.
1195
2 Cor. iii.
8
.
1196
cf
.
Ps. xxi. 5
.
1197
cf
.
Ps. xv
.
1198
cf
.
Matt. xxviii. 19; 1 Cor.
xii. 11; Rom. viii. 11; 1 Pet. i. 2
.
1199
Matt. x. 19,
20
.
1200
2 Cor. iii.
17
.
1201
Mr.
C.F.H. Johnston conjectures the allusion to be to
Hom
.
xxiv. “
Contra Sabellianos et Arium et
Anomœos
.”
1202
1 Cor. ii. 10,
11
.
1203
In
1 Tim. vi.
13
, St. Paul writes
τοῦ
θεοῦ τοῦ
ζωοποιοῦντος
πάντα
. In the text St.
Basil writes
τὰ
πάντα
ζωογονοῦντος
.
The latter word is properly distinguished from the former as
meaning not to make alive after death, but to engender
alive. In
Luke
xvii. 33
, it is
rendered in A.V. “preserve.” In
Acts vii. 19
, it is “to the end
they might not
live
.” On the meaning of
ζωογονεῖν
in the lxx. and the Socinian arguments based on its use in
Luke xvii.
33
,
cf
.
Pearson,
On the Creed
, Art. V. note to p. 257 Ed.
1676.
1204
Rom. viii.
11
.
1205
John x.
27–28
.
1206
2 Cor. iii.
6
.
1207
Rom. viii.
10
.
1208
John vi. 63
.
1209
cf
.
Heb. vi. 4
.
1210
Rom. viii. 2
.
1211
Acts i. 8
.
1212
Rom. viii.
32
.
1213
1 Cor. ii.
12
.
1214
Gal. iv. 6
.