Chapter 12.—In Relative
Things that are Reciprocal, Names are Sometimes Wanting.
13. Neither ought it to influence
us—since we have said that the Holy Spirit is so called
relatively, not the Trinity itself, but He who is in the
Trinity—that the designation of Him to whom He is referred, does
not seem to answer in turn to His designation. For we cannot, as we
say the servant of a master, and the master of a servant, the son
of a father and the father of a son, so also say here—because
these things are said relatively. For we speak of the Holy Spirit
of the Father; but, on the other hand, we do not speak of the
Father of the Holy Spirit, lest the Holy Spirit should be
understood to be His Son. So also we speak of the Holy Spirit of
the Son; but we do not speak of the Son of the
Holy Spirit,
lest the Holy Spirit be understood to be His Father. For it is the
case in many relatives, that no designation is to be found by which
those things which bear relation to each other may [in name]
mutually correspond to each other. For what is more clearly spoken
relatively than the word earnest? Since it is referred to that of
which it is an earnest, and an earnest is always an earnest of
something. Can we then, as we say, the earnest of the Father and of
the Son,
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say in turn,
the Father of the earnest or the Son of the earnest? But, on the
other hand, when we say the gift of the Father and of the Son, we
cannot indeed say the Father of the gift, or the Son of the gift;
but that these may correspond mutually to each other, we say the
gift of the giver and the giver of the gift; because here a word in
use may be found, there it cannot.
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2 Cor. v. 5
, and
Eph. i.
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