The Heresy of Macedonius, Who Denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghost

1. Though Arius did not deny the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, still it was a necessary consequence of his principles, for, denying the Son to be God, the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, could not be God. However, Aezius, Eunomius, Eudoxius, and all those followers of his, who blasphemously taught that the Son was not like unto the Father, attacked also the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, and the chief defender and propagator of this heresy was Macedonius. In the refutation of the heresy of Sabellius, we will prove, in opposition to the Socinians, that the Holy Ghost is the Third Person of the Trinity, subsisting and really distinct from the Father and the Son; here we will prove that the Holy Ghost is true God, equal and consubstantial to the Father and the Son.  

THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST PROVED FROM SCRIPTURES, FROM THE TRADITIONS OF THE FATHERS, AND FROM GENERAL COUNCILS.  

2. We begin with the Scriptures. To prove that this is an article of Faith, I do not myself think any more is necessary than to quote the text of St. Matthew, in which is related the commission given by Christ to his Apostles: " Go, ye, therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt, xxviii, 19). It is in this belief we profess the Christian religion, which is founded on the mystery of the Trinity, the principal one of our Faith; it is by these words the character of a Christian is impressed on every one entering into the Church by Baptism; this is the formula approved by all the Holy Fathers, and used from the earliest ages of the Church: " I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." As the three Persons are named consecutively, and without any difference, the equality of the authority and power belonging to them is declared, and as we say, " in the name," and not " in the names," we profess the unity of essence in them. By using the article " and in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," we proclaim the real distinction that exists between them; for if we said, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the latter expression, Holy Ghost, might be understood, not as a substantive, as the proper name of one of the Divine Persons, but as an epithet and adjective applied to the Father and the Son. It is for this reason, Tertullian says (15), that our Lord has commanded to make an ablution, in the administration of Baptism, at the name of each of the Divine Persons, that we may firmly believe that there are three distinct Persons in the Trinity. "Mandavit ut tingerent in Patrem et Filium, et Spiritum Sanctum; non in unum nec semel sed ter ad singula nomina in personas singulas tingimur." 

3. St. Athanasius, in his celebrated Epistle to Serapion, says, that we join the name of the Holy Ghost with the Father and the Son in Baptism, because, if we omitted it, the Sacrament would be invalid: " He who curtails the Trinity, and baptizes in the name of the Father alone, or in the name of the Son alone, or omitting the Holy Ghost, with the Father and Son, performs nothing, for initiation consists in the whole Trinity being named." The Saint says that if we omit the name of the Holy Ghost the Baptism is invalid, because Baptism is the Sacrament in which we profess the Faith, and this Faith requires a belief in all the three Divine Persons united in one essence, so that he who denies one of the Persons denies God altogether. (15) Tertullian, con. Praxeam, c. 26.  " And so," follows on St. Athanasius, " Baptism would be invalid, when administered in the belief that the Son or the Holy Ghost were mere creatures." He who divides the Son from the Father, or lowers the Spirit to the condition of a mere creature, has neither the Son nor the Father, and justly, for as it is one Baptism which is conferred in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and it is one Faith in Him, as the Apostle says, so the Holy Trinity, existing in itself, and united in itself, has, in itself, nothing of created things. Thus, as the Trinity is one and undivided, so is the Faith of three Persons united in it, one and undivided. We, therefore, are bound to believe that the name of the Holy Ghost, that is, the name of the Third Person expressed by these two words, so frequently used in the Scriptures, is not an imaginary name, or casually invented, but the name of the Third Person, God, like the Father and the Son. We should remember, likewise, that the expression, Holy Ghost, is, properly speaking, but one word, for either of its component parts might be applied to the Father or the Son, for both are Holy, both are Spirit, but this word is the proper name of the Third Person of the Trinity. " Why would Jesus Christ," adds St. Athanasius, " join the name of the Holy Ghost with those of the Father and the Son, if he were a mere creature? is it to render the three Divine Persons unlike each other? was there any thing wanting to God that he should assume a different substance, to render it glorious like unto himself?"  

4. Besides this text of St. Matthew, already quoted, in which our Lord not only orders his disciples to baptize in the name of the three Persons, but to teach the Faith: " Teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father," &c., we have that text of St. John: " There are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one" (John, I. Epis. v, 7). These words (as we have already explained in the Refutation of Sabellianism, n. 9), evidently prove the unity of Nature, and the distinction of the three Divine Persons (16). The text says, " These three are one;" if the three testimonies are one and the same, then each one of them has the same Divinity, the same substance, for otherwise, how, as St. Isidore (17) says, could the text of St. John be verified? " Nam cum tria sunt unum sunt." St. Paul says the same, in sending his blessing to his disciples in Corinth: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God, and the communication of the Holy Ghost be with you all" (II. Cor. xiii, 13). (16) St. A than. Epis. ad Serassion, n. 6. (17) St. Isidore, l. 7; Etymol. c. 4.  

5. We find the same expressions used in those passages of the Scriptures which speak of the sending of the Holy Ghost to the Church, as in St. John (xiv, 16): "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you for ever." Remark how our Lord uses the words, " another Paraclete," to mark the equality existing between himself and the Holy Ghost. Again, he says, in the same Gospel (xv, 26): " When the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall give testimony of me." Here Jesus says, " he will send" the Spirit of Truth; now this Spirit which he will send is not his own Spirit, for his own Spirit he could communicate or give, but not "send," for sending means the transmission of something distinct from the person who sends. He adds, "Who proceeds from the Father;" and " procession," in respect of the Divine Persons, implies equality, and it is this very argument the Fathers availed themselves of against the Arians, to prove the Divinity of the Word, as we may see in the writings of St. Ambrose (18). The reason is this: the procession from another is to receive the same existence from the principle from which the procession is made, and, therefore, if the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father, he receives the Divinity from the Father in the same manner as the Father himself has it.  

6. Another great proof is, that we see the Holy Ghost called God in the Scriptures, like the Father, without any addition, restriction, or inequality. Thus Isaias, in the beginning of his 6th chapter, thus speaks of the Supreme God: " I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated; upon it stood the seraphim, and they cried to one another, Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord God of Hosts, all the earth is full of his glory; and I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Go, and thou shalt say to this people, hearing, hear and understand not. Blind the heart of this people, and make their ears heavy." (18) St. Ambrose, l. 1 ,de Spir. S. c. 4.  Now, St. Paul informs us that this Supreme God, of whom the Prophet speaks, is the Holy Ghost. Here are his words: " Well did the Holy Ghost speak to our fathers by Isaias the Prophet, saying: " Go to this people, and say to them, with the ear you shall hear" &c. (Acts, xxviii, 25, 26). So we here see that the Holy Ghost is that same God called by Isaias the Lord God of Hosts. St. Basil (19) makes a beautiful reflection regarding this expression, the Lord God of Hosts. Isaias, in the prayer quoted, refers it to the Father. St. John (cap. 12), applies it to the Son, as is manifest from the 37th and the following verse, where this text is referred to, and St. Paul applies it to the Holy Ghost: " The Prophet," says the Saint, " mentions the Person of the Father, in whom the Jews believed, the Evangelist the Son, Paul the Holy Spirit" " Propheta inducit Patris in quem Judei credebant personam Evangelista Filii, Paulus Spiritus, ilium ipsum qui visus fuerat unum Dominum Sabaoth communiter nominantes. Sermonem quem de hypostasi instituerunt distruxere indistincta manente in eis de uno Deo sententia." How beautifully the Holy Doctor shows that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, are three distinct Persons, but still the one and the same God, speaking by the mouth of his Prophets. St. Paul, also, speaking of that passage in the Psalms (xciv, 9), " Your fathers tempted me," says, that the God the Hebrews then tempted was the Holy Ghost; " therefore," says the Apostle, " as the Holy Ghost saith your fathers tempted me" (Heb. iii, 7, 9).  

7. St. Peter confirms this doctrine (Acts, i, 16), when he says that the God who spoke by the mouth of the Prophets is the Holy Ghost himself: " The Scripture must be fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost spoke before by the mouth of David." And in the second Epistle (i, 21), he says: " For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time, but the holy men of God spoke, in spired by the Holy Ghost." St. Peter, likewise, calls the Holy Ghost God, in contradistinction to creatures. When charging Ananias with a lie, he says: " Why hath Satan tempted thy heart, that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Ghost thou hast not lied to man, but to God" (Acts, v, 4). (19) St. Basil, l 5, con. Eunom.  It is most certain that St. Peter, in this passage, intended to say that the Third Person of the Trinity was God, and thus St. Basil, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory Nazianzen (20), and several other Fathers, together with St. Augustine (21), understood it so. St. Augustine says: " Showing that the Holy Ghost is God, you have not lied," he says, " to man, but to God.  

8. Another strong proof of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost is, that the Scriptures attribute to him qualities which belong alone by nature to God: First Immensity, which fills the world: " Do not I fill the heaven and the earth, saith the Lord?" (Jer. xxiii, 24). And the Scripture then says that the Holy Ghost fills the world: " For the Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world" (Wisdom, i, 7). Therefore the Holy Ghost is God. St. Ambrose says (22): " Of what creature can it be said what is written of the Holy Ghost, that he filled all things? I will pour forth my Spirit over all flesh, &c., for it is the Lord alone can fill all things, who says, I fill the heaven and the earth." Besides, we read in the Acts (ii, 4), " They were all filled with the Holy Ghost." " Do we ever hear," says Didimus, "the Scriptures say, filled by a creature? The Scriptures never speak in this way." They were, therefore, filled with God, and this God was the Holy Spirit.  

9. Secondly God alone knows the Divine secrets. As St. Ambrose says, the inferior knows not the secrets of his superior. Now, St. Paul says, " The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God, for what man knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit of a man that is in him? So the things also that are of God no man knoweth but the Spirit of God" (I. Cor. ii, 10, 11). The Holy Ghost is, therefore, God; for, as Paschasius remarks, if none but God can know the heart of man, " the searcher of hearts and reins is God" (Ps. vii, 10). Much more so must it be God alone who knows the secrets of God. This, then, he says, is a proof of the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. St. Athanasius proves the consubstantiality of the Holy Ghost with the Father and the Son from this same passage, for as the spirit of man, which knows the secrets of man, is nothing foreign from him, but is of the very substance of man, so the Holy Ghost, who knows the secrets of God, is not different from God, but must be one and the same substance with God. (20) St Basil, l 1, con. Eunom. et lib. de. Sp. S. c. 16; St. Ambrose l.1, de Spir. S. c. 4; St. Gregor. Nazianz. Orat. 37. (21) St. Augus. l 2, con. Maximin. c. 21. (22) St. Ambrose, l. 1, de S. S. c. 7.  " Would it not be the height of impiety to say that the Spirit who is in God, and who searches the hidden things of God, is a creature? He who holds that opinion will be obliged to admit that the spirit of man is something different from man himself" (23).  

10. Thirdly God alone is omnipotent, and this attribute belongs to the Holy Ghost. " By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all the power of them by the Spirit of his mouth" (Psalms, xxxii, 7). And St. Luke is even clearer on this point, for when the Blessed Virgin asked the Archangel how she could become the mother of our Saviour, having consecrated her virginity to God, the Archangel answered: " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee because no word shall be impossible with God." Hence we see the Holy Ghost is all-powerful, that to him there is nothing impossible. To the Holy Ghost, likewise, is attributed the creation of the universe: " Send forth thy Spirit, and they shall be created" (Psalms, ciii, 30). And in Job we read: " His Spirit has adorned the heavens" (Job, xxvi, 13). The power of creation belongs to the Divine Omnipotence alone. Hence, concludes St. Athanasius (24), when we find this written, it is certain that the Spirit is not a created, but a creator. The Father creates all things by the Word in the Spirit, inasmuch as when the Word is there, the Spirit is, and all things created by the Word have, from the Spirit, by the Son, the power of existing. For it is thus written in the 32nd Psalm: " By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all the power of them by the Spirit of his mouth." There can, therefore, be no doubt but that the Spirit is undivided from the Son.  

11. Fourthly It is certain that the grace of God is not given unless by God himself: " The Lord will give grace and glory" (Psalms. Ixxxiii, 12). Thus, also, it is God alone who can grant justification. It is God " that justifieth the wicked" (Prov. xvii, 15). Now both these attributes appertain to the Holy Ghost. " The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us" (Romans, v, 5). (23) St. Athanas. Epis. 1, ad Serapion. n. 22. (24) St. Athanas. ibid,  Didimus (25) makes a reflection on this: The very expression, he says, " poured out," proves the uncreated substance of the Holy Ghost; for whenever God sends forth an angel, he does not say, I will " pour out" my angel. As to justification, we hear Jesus says to his disciples: " Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven" (John, xx. 22, 23). If the power of forgiving sins comes from the Holy Ghost, he must be God. The Apostle also says that it is God who operates in us the good we do; " the same God who worketh all in all" (I. Cor. xii, 6). And then in the llth verse of the same chapter he says that this God is the Holy Ghost: " But all those things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to every one according as he will." Here then, says St. Athanasius, the Scripture proves that the operation of God is the operation of the Holy Ghost.  

12. Fifthly St. Paul tells us that we are the temples of God. " Know you not that you are the temple of God" (I. Cor. iii, 16). And then further on in the same Epistle he says that our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost: " Or know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you" (vi, 19). If, therefore, we are the temples of God and of the Holy Ghost, we must confess that the Holy Ghost is God, for if the Holy Ghost were a creature, we would be forced to admit that the very temple of God was the temple of a creature. Here are St. Augustine’s (26) words on the subject: " If the Holy Ghost be not God, he would not have us as his temple for if we would build a temple to some Saint or Angel, we would be cut off from the truth of Christ and the Church of God, since we would be exhibiting to a creature that service which we owe to God alone. If, therefore, we would be guilty of sacrilege, by erecting a temple to any creature, surely he must be true God to whom we not only erect a temple, but even are ourselves his temple." (25) Dydim. l. de St. San. (27) St. Augus. in I. Cor. c. 6; Coll. cum Maximin. in Arian.  Hence, also, St. Fulgentius (27), in his remarks on the same subject, justly reproves those who deny the Divinity of the Holy Ghost: " Do you mean to tell me," says the Saint, " that he who is not God could establish the power of the heavens that he who is not God could sanctify us by the regeneration of Baptism that he who is not God could give us charity that he who is not God could give us grace that he could have as his temples the members of Christ, and still be not God? You must agree to all this, if you deny that the Holy Ghost is true God. If any creature could do all these things attributed to the Holy Ghost, then he may justly be called a creature; but if all these things are impossible to a creature, and are attributed to the Holy Ghost, things which belong to God alone, we should not say that he is naturally different from the Father and the Son, when we can find no difference in his power of operating." We must then conclude, with St. Fulgentius, that, where there is a unity of power, there is a unity of nature, and the Divinity of the Holy Ghost follows as a necessary consequence.  

13. In addition to these Scripture proofs, we have the constant tradition of the Church, in which the Faith of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, and his consubstantiality with the Father and the Son, has been always preserved, both in the formula of administering Baptism, and in the prayers in which he is conjointly invoked with the Father and the Son, especially in that prayer said at the conclusion of all the Psalms and Hymns: " Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," or, " Glory to the Father, by the Son, in the Holy Ghost," or, " Glory to the Father, with the Son and the Holy Ghost," all three formulæ having been practised by the Church. St. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Ambrose, St. Hilary, Didimus, Theodoret, St. Augustine, and the other Fathers, laid great stress on this argument when opposing the Macedonians. St. Basil (28), remarks that the formula, " Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," was rarely used in his time in the Church, but generally " Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, with the Holy Ghost." However, it all amounts to the same thing, for it is a general rule, in speaking of the Trinity, to use the words " from whom," " by whom," " in whom," (as when we say of the Father, " from whom are all things;" of the Son, " by whom are all things;" of the Holy Ghost, " in whom are all things,") in the same sense. (27) St. Fulgentius, l. 3, ad Trasimund, c. 35. (28) St. Basil, l. 1, de S. Sancto, c. 25.  There is no inequality of Persons marked by these expressions, since St. Paul, speaking of God himself, says: " For of him, and by him, and in him, are all things; to him be glory for ever. Amen" (Rom. xi, 36).  

14. This constant faith of the Church has been preserved by the Holy Fathers in their writings from the earliest ages. St. Basil, one of the most strenuous defenders of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost (29), cites a passage of St. Clement of Rome, Pope: " The ancient Clement," he says, " thus spoke: The Father lives; he says, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. " Thus, St. Clement attributes the same life to the three Divine Persons equally, and therefore believed them all three to be truly and substantially God. What makes this stronger is, that St. Clement is contrasting the three Divine Persons with the Gods of the Gentiles, who had no life, while God in the Scriptures is called " the living God." It is of no importance either, that the words quoted are not found in the two Epistles of St. Clement, for we have only some fragments of the second Epistle, and we may, therefore, believe for certain, that St. Basil had the whole Epistle before him, of which we have only a part.  

15. St. Justin, in his second Apology, says: " We adore and venerate, with truth and reason, himself (the Father), and he who comes from him the Son and the Holy Ghost," Thus St. Justin pays the same adoration to the Son and the Holy Ghost as to the Father. Athenagoras, in his Apology, says: "We believe in God, and his Son, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, united in power For the Son is the mind, the word, and the wisdom of the Father, and the Spirit is as the light flowing from fire." St. Iræneus (30) teaches that God, the Father, has created and now governs all things, both by the Word and by the Holy Ghost. " For nothing," he says, " is wanting to God, who makes, and disposes, and governs all things, by the Word and by the Holy Ghost." We here see, according to St. Iræneus, that God has no need of any thing; and he afterwards says, that he does all things by the Word and by the Holy Ghost. (29) St. Basil, l. de S. Sancto, c. 29. (30) St. Iræn, l. 1, ad Hæres. c. 19.  The Holy Ghost is, therefore, God the same as the Father. He tells us, in another part of his works (31), that the Holy Ghost is a creator, and eternal, unlike a created spirit. " For that which is made is," he says, " different from the maker; what is made is made in time, but the Spirit is eternal." St. Lucian, who lived about the year 160, says, in a Dialogue, entitled Philopatris, attributed to him, addressing a Gentile, who interrogates him: " What, then, shall I swear for you?" Triphon, the Defender of the Faith, answers:  " God reigning on high the Son of the Father, the Spirit proceeding from the Father, one from three, and three from one." This passage is so clear that it requires no explanation. Clement of Alexandria says (32): " The Father of all is one; the Word of all is also one; and the Holy Ghost is one, who is also every where." In another passage he clearly explains the Divinity and Consubstantiality of the Holy Ghost with the Father and the Son (33): " We return thanks to the Father alone, and to the Son, together with the Holy Ghost, in all things one, in whom are all things, by whom all things are in one, by whom that is which always is." See here how he explains that the three Persons are equal in fact, and that they are but one in essence. Tertullian (34) professes his belief in the " Trinity of one Divinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost;" and, in another place (35), he says: " We define, indeed, two, the Father and the Son, nay, three, with the Holy Ghost; but we never profess to believe in two Gods, although the Father is God, the Son God, and the Holy Ghost God, and each one is God," &c. St. Cyprian (36), speaking of the Trinity, says: " When the three are one, how could the Holy Ghost be agreeable to him, if he were the enemy of the Father or the Son?" And, in the same Epistle, he proves that Baptism administered in the name of Christ alone is of no avail, for " Christ," he says, " orders that the Gentiles should be baptized in the full and united Trinity." (31) St. Iræn. l. 5, c. 12. (32) Clem. Alex. Pædag. l. 1, c. 6.. (33) Idem, l. 3, c. 7. (34) Tertul. de Pudic. c. 21.(35) Idem, con. Praxeam, c. 3 (36) St. Cyp. Ep. ad Juba.  St. Dionisius Romanus, in his Epistle against Sabellius, says: " The admirable and Divine unity is not, therefore, to be divided into three Deities; but we are bound to believe in God, the Father Almighty, and in Christ Jesus, his Son, and in the Holy Ghost." I omit the innumerable testimonies of the Fathers of the following centuries; but I here merely note some of those who have purposely attacked the heresy of Macedonius, and these are St. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Epiphanius, Didimus, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Cyril of Alexandria, and St. Hilary (37). These Fathers, immediately on the appearance of the Macedonian heresy, all joined in condemning it a clear proof that it was contrary to the Faith of the Universal Church.  

16. This heresy was condemned, besides, by several Councils, both General and Particular. First It was condemned (two years after Macedonius had broached it) by the Council of Alexandria, celebrated by St. Athanasius, in the year 372, in which it was decided that the Holy Ghost was Consubstantial in the Trinity. In the year 377, it was condemned by the Holy See, in the Synod of Illiricum; and about the same time, as Theodoret (38) informs us, it was condemned in two other Roman Synods, by the Pope, St. Damasus. Finally, in the year 381, it was condemned in the First Council of Constantinople, under St. Damasus; and this Article was annexed to the symbol of the Faith: " We believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, proceeding from the Father, and with the Father and the Son to be adored and glorified, who spoke by the Prophets." He to whom the same worship is to be given as to the Father and the Son, is surely God. Besides, this Council has been always held as Ecumenical by the whole Church, for though composed of only one hundred and fifty Oriental Bishops, still, as the Western Bishops, about the same time, defined the same Article of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, under St. Damasus, this decision has been always considered as the decision of the Universal Church; and the subsequent General Councils that is, the Council of Chalcedon, the Second and Third of Constantinople, and the Second of Nice confirmed the same symbol. Nay more, the Fourth Council of Constantinople pronounced an anathema against Macedonius, and defined that the Holy Ghost is consubstantial to the Father and to the Son. Finally, the Fourth Council of Lateran thus concludes: " We define that there is but one true God alone, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, three Persons, indeed, but only one Essence, Substance, or simple Nature And that all these Persons are consubstantial, omnipotent, and co-eternal, the one beginning of all things."  (37) St. Athan. Ep. ad Scrap.; St. de S. San.; St. Cyril, Hieros. Cat. Basil, l. 3, 5, cont. Eunom. & l. de 16, 17; St. Cyril, Alex. l. 7, de Spi. S.; St. Greg. Naz. l. 5, de Trin. & I de S. Sane.; St. Hil. de Theol.; St. Greg. Nys. l. ad Eust.; Trinit. St. Epiphan. Hier. 74; Didimus, l. (38) Theodoret, l. 2, Hist. c. 22.  II-ANSWER TO OBJECTIONS  

17. First, the Socinians, who have revived the ancient heresies, adduce a negative argument. They say that the Holy Ghost is never called God in the Scriptures, nor is ever proposed to us to be adored and invoked. But St. Augustine (1) thus answers this argument, addressing the Macedonian Maximinus: " When have you read that the Father was not born, but self-existing? and still it is no less true," &c. The Saint means to say that many things in the Scriptures are stated, not in express terms, but in equivalent ones, which prove the truth of what is stated, just as forcibly; and, for a proof of that, the reader can refer to N. 4 and 6, where the Divinity of the Holy Ghost is incontestibly proved, if not in express, in equivalent, terms.  

18. Secondly, they object that St. Paul, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, speaking of the benefits conferred by God on mankind, mentions the Father and the Son, but not the Holy Ghost. We answer, that it is not necessary, in speaking of God, that we should always expressly name the three Divine Persons, for, when we speak of one, we speak of the three, especially in speaking of the operations, ad extra, to which the three Divine Persons concur in the same manner. (1) St. Augus. l. 2, alias 3, coiit. Maxim, c. 3.  " Whosoever is blessed in Christ," says St. Ambrose (2), " is blessed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, because there is one name and one power; thus, likewise, when the operation of the Holy Ghost is pointed out, it is referred, not only to the Holy Ghost, but also to the Father and the Son."  

19. They object, thirdly, that the primitive Christians knew nothing of the Holy Ghost, as we learn from the Acts of the Apostles, when St. Paul asked some newly-baptized, if they had received the Holy Ghost, they answered: " We have not so much as heard if there be a Holy Ghost" (Acts, xix, 2). We reply that the answer to this is furnished by the very passage itself, for, St. Paul hearing that they knew nothing of the Holy Ghost, asked them: " In what, then, were you baptized;" and they answered, " in John’s Baptism." No wonder, then, that they knew nothing of the Holy Ghost, when they were not even as yet baptized with the Baptism instituted by Christ.  

20. They object, fourthly, that the Council of Constantinople, speaking of the Holy Ghost, does not call him God. We answer that the Council does call him God, when it says he is the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, and who, with the Father and the Son, should be adored and glorified. And the same answer will apply, when they object that St. Basil (or any other Father) has not called the Holy Ghost God, for they have defended his Divinity, and condemned those who called him a creature. Besides, if St. Basil, in his sermons, does not speak of the Holy Ghost as God, it was only an act of prudence in those calamitous times, when the heretics sought every occasion to chase the Catholic Bishops from their Sees, and intrude wolves into their places. St. Basil, on the other hand, defends the Divinity of the Holy Ghost in a thousand passages. Just take one for all, where he says, in his Fifth Book against Eunomius, tit. 1: " What is common to the Father and the Son is likewise so to the Holy Ghost, for wherever we find the Father and the Son designated as God in the Scripture, the Holy Ghost is designated as God likewise. (2) St. Amb. l. 1, de Sanc. c. 3.  

21. Fifthly, they found objections on some passages of the Scripture, but they are either equivocal or rather confirmatory of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. They lay great stress especially on that text of St. John: " But when the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who proceedeth from the Father" (John, xv, 26). Now, they say, when the Holy Spirit is sent, it is a sign that he is inferior, and in a state of subjection, or dependence; therefore, he is not God. To this we answer, that the Holy Ghost is not sent by a command, but sent solely by a procession from the Father, and the Son, for from these he proceeds. Mission, or being sent, means nothing more in Divinis, than this, the presence of the Divine Person, manifested by any sensible effect, which is specially ascribed to the Person sent. This, for example, was the mission of the Holy Ghost, when he descended into the Cenaculum on the Apostles, to make them worthy to found the Church, just as the eternal Word was sent by the Father to take flesh for the salvation of mankind. In the same way we explain that text of St. John: " He shall not speak of himself, but what thingssoever he shall hear, he shall speak he shall glorify me, because he shall receive of mine" (John, xvi, 14, 15). The Holy Ghost takes from the Father and the Son, the knowledge of all things, not by learning them, but proceeding from them without any dependence, as a necessary requirement of his Divine Nature. And this is the very meaning of the words: " He shall receive of mine;" since through the Son, the Father communicates to the Holy Ghost, together with the Divine Essence, wisdom, and all the attributes of the Son. " He will hear from him," says St. Augustine (3), " from whom he proceeds. To him, to hear, is to know, to know, is to exist. Because, therefore, he is not from himself, but from him from whom he proceeds, from whom he has his essence, from him he has his knowledge. Ab illo igitur audientia, quod nihil est aliud, quam scientia." St. Ambrose expresses the same sentiments (4).  

22. They object, sixthly, that St. Paul says: " The Spirit himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings" (Rom. viii, 26). Therefore, the Holy Ghost groans and prays, as an inferior. But St. Augustine thus explains the text: "He asketh with groanings that we should understand that he causes us to ask with groanings" (5). Thus St. Paul wishes to instruct us, that by the grace we receive, we become compunctious and groaning, making us pray with " unspeakable groanings," just as God makes us triumph, when he says that Jesus Christ triumphs in us: " Thanks be to God, who always makes us triumph in Christ Jesus" (II. Cor. ii, 14). (3) St. Augus. Trac. 99, in Joan. (4) St. Ambrose, l. 2, de Sp. San. c. 12. (5) St. Augus. Coll. cum Maxim.  

23. They object, seventhly, another passage of St. Paul: " The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God" (I. Cor. ii, 10); and they then say that the word, " searcheth," shows that the Holy Ghost is ignorant of the Divine secrets; but we answer, that this expression does not mean seeking or inquiring, but the simple comprehension which the Holy Ghost has of the whole of the Divine Essence, and of all things, as it is said of God: " That he searcheth the heart and the reins" (Psalms, vii, 10); which means that God comprehends all the thoughts and affections of mankind. Hence, St. Ambrose (6) concludes: " The Holy Ghost is a searcher like the Father, he is a searcher like the Son, and this expression is used to show that there is nothing which he does not know."  

24. They object, eighthly, that passage of St. John:  "All things were made by him, and without him was made nothing that was made" (John, i, 3); therefore, the Holy Ghost was made by him, and is consequently a creature. We answer, that in this sense, it cannot be said that all things were made by the Word, for in that case, even the Father would be made by him. The Holy Ghost is not made, but proceeds from the Father and the Son, as from one principle, by the absolute necessity of the Divine Nature, and without any dependence. (6) St. Ambrose, l. de Sp. San. c.