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“Augustine on The Trinity and The Holy Spirit (text 4)

from In Evangelium Ioannis tractatus, 99: 6 - 9

Click here for text 1 on this theme from Augustine, and here for text 2, and here for text 3.

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 Relevant books
 available at Amazon

Many Augustine translations
and studies with links to Amazon

A selection below

 

Peter Brown biography

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Allan Fitzgerald

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Henry Chadwick
a short indroduction

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William Harmless.
Extracts from several of Augustine's main works

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Henry Chadwick's translation of "Confessions"

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R.W.Dyson's translation of "The City of God"

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R.P.H. Green's translation of "On Christian Teaching"

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Gareth Matthews' translation of "On The Trinity" (books 8 - 15)

 

6. Some one may here inquire whether the Holy Spirit proceedeth also from the Son. For the Son is Son of the Father alone, and the Father is Father of the Son alone; but the Holy Spirit is not the Spirit of one of them, but of both. You have the Lord Himself saying, “For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you;” and you have the apostle, “God hath sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts.” Are there, then, two, the one of the Father, the other of the Son? Certainly not. For there is “one body,” he said, when referring to the Church; and presently added, “and one Spirit.” And mark how he there makes up the Trinity. “As ye are called,” he says, “in one hope of your calling.” “One Lord,” where he certainly meant Christ to be understood; but it remained that he should also name the Father: and accordingly there follows, “One faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” And since, then, just as there is one Father, and one Lord, namely, the Son, so also there is one Spirit; He is doubtless of both: especially as Christ Jesus Himself saith, “The Spirit of your Father that dwelleth in you;” and the apostle declares, “God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts.” You have the same apostle saying in another place, “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,” where he certainly intended the Spirit of the Father to be understood; of whom, however, he says in another place, “But if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” And many other testimonies there are, which plainly show that He, who in the Trinity is styled the Holy Spirit, is the Spirit both of the Father and of the Son.

7. And for no other reason, I suppose, is He called in a peculiar way the Spirit; since though asked concerning each person in His turn, we cannot but admit that the Father and the Son are each of them a Spirit; for God is a Spirit, that is, God is not carnal, but spiritual. By the name, therefore, which they each also hold in common, it was requisite that He should be distinctly called, who is not the one nor the other of them, but in whom what is common to both becomes apparent. Why, then, should we not believe that the Holy Spirit proceedeth also from the Son, seeing that He is likewise the Spirit of the Son? For did He not so proceed, He could not, when showing Himself to His disciples after the resurrection, have breathed upon them, and said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” For what else was signified by such a breathing upon them, but that from Him also the Holy Spirit proceedeth? And of the same character also are His words regarding the woman that suffered from the bloody flux: “Some one hath touched me; for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.” For that the Holy Spirit is also designated by the name of virtue, is both clear from the passage where the angel, in reply to Mary’s question, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” said, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power [virtue] of the highest shall overshadow thee;” and our Lord Himself when giving His disciples the promise of the Spirit, said, “But tarry ye in the city, until ye be endued with power [virtue] from on high;” and on another occasion, “Ye shall receive the power [virtue] of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me.” It is of this virtue that we are to believe, that the evangelist says, “Virtue went out of Him, and healed them all.”

8. If, then, the Holy Spirit proceedeth both from the Father and from the Son, why said the Son, “He proceedeth from the Father”? Why, do you think, but just because it is to Him He is wont to attribute even that which is His own, of whom He Himself also is? Hence we have Him saying, “My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me.” If, therefore, in such a passage we are to understand that as His doctrine, which nevertheless He declared not to be His own, but the Father’s, how much more in that other passage are we to understand the Holy Spirit as proceeding from Himself, where His words, “He proceedeth from the Father,” were uttered so as not to imply, He proceedeth not from me? But from Him, of whom the Son has it that He is God (for He is God of God), He certainly has it that from Him also the Holy Spirit proceedeth: and in this way the Holy Spirit has it of the Father Himself, that He should also proceed from the Son, even as He proceedeth from the Father.

9. In connection with this, we come also to some understanding of the further point, that is, so far as it can be understood by such beings as ourselves, why the Holy Spirit is not said to be born, but to proceed: since, if He also were called by the name of Son, He could not avoid being called the Son of both, which is utterly absurd. For no one is a son of two, unless of a father and mother. But it would be utterly abhorrent to entertain the suspicion of any such intervention between God the Father and God the Son. For not even a son of human parents proceedeth at the same time from father and from mother: but at the time that he proceedeth from the father into the mother, it is not then that he proceedeth from the mother; and when he cometh forth from the mother into the light of day, it is not then that he proceedeth from the father. But the Holy Spirit proceedeth not from the Father into the Son, and then proceedeth from the Son to the work of the creature’s sanctification; but He proceedeth at the same time from both: although this the Father hath given unto the Son, that He should proceed from Him also, even as He proceedeth from Himself. And as little can we say that the Holy Spirit is not the life, seeing that the Father is the life, and the Son is the life. And in the same way as the Father, who hath life in Himself, hath given to the Son also to have life in Himself; so hath He also given that life should proceed from Him, even as it also proceedeth from Himself. But we come now to the words of our Lord that follow, when He saith: “And He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me; for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore, said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.” But as the present discourse has already been protracted to some length, they must be left over for another.

 




 

 

 

 

 

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original Latin text
from Tractates on the Gospel of John 99
Holy Spirit proceeding from The Father and The Son
Augustine and double procession of the Holy Spirit
Migne Latin
Patrologiae Latinae Cursus Completus
Patrologia Latina

 

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