{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/103/1030236.htm","path":"chr/ecf/103/1030236.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/103/1030236.htm","text":"Chapter 17.\u2014How the Holy Spirit is Called Love, and Whether He Alone is So Called. That the Holy Spirit is in the Scriptures Properly Called by the Name of Love.\n27. We have sufficiently spoken of the Father and of the Son, so far as was possible for us to see through this glass and in this enigma. We must now treat of the Holy Spirit, so far as by God\u2019s gift it is permitted to see Him. And the Holy Spirit, according to the Holy Scriptures, is neither of the Father alone, nor of the Son alone, but of both; and so intimates to us a mutual love, wherewith the Father and the Son reciprocally love one another. But the language of the Word of God, in order to exercise us, has caused those things to be sought into with the greater zeal, which do not lie on the surface, but are to be scrutinized in hidden depths, and to be drawn out from thence. The Scriptures, accordingly, have not said, The Holy Spirit is Love. If they had said so, they would have done away with no small part of this inquiry. But they have said, \u201cGod is love;\u201d 996 so that it is uncertain and remains to be inquired whether God the Father is love, or God the Son, or God the Holy Ghost, or the Trinity itself which is God. For we are not going to say that God is called Love because love itself is a substance worthy of the name of God, but because it is a gift of God, as it is said to God, \u201cThou art my patience.\u201d 997 For this is not said because our patience is God\u2019s substance, but in that He Himself gives it to us; as it is elsewhere read, \u201cSince from Him is my patience.\u201d 998 For the usage of words itself in Scripture sufficiently refutes this interpretation; for \u201cThou art my patience\u201d is of the same kind as \u201cThou, Lord, art my hope,\u201d 999 and \u201cThe Lord my God is my mercy,\u201d 1000 and many like texts. And it is not said, O Lord my love, or, Thou art my love, or, God my love; but it is said thus, \u201cGod is love,\u201d as it is said, \u201cGod is a Spirit.\u201d 1001 And he who does not discern this, must ask understanding from the Lord, not an explanation from us; for we cannot say anything more clearly.\n28. \u201cGod,\u201d then, \u201cis love;\u201d but the question is, whether the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, or the Trinity itself: because the Trinity is not three Gods, but one God. But I have already argued above in this book, that the Trinity, which is God, is not so to be understood from those three things which have been set forth in the trinity of our mind, as that the Father should be the memory of all three, and the Son the understanding of all three, and the Holy Spirit the love of all three; as though the Father should neither understand nor love for Himself, but the Son should understand for Him, and the Holy Spirit love for Him, but He Himself should remember only both for Himself and for them; nor the Son remember nor love for Himself, but the Father should remember for Him, and the Holy Spirit love for Him, but He Himself understand only both for Himself and them; nor likewise that the Holy Spirit should neither remember nor understand for Himself, but the Father should remember for Him, and the Son understand for Him, while He Himself should love only both for Himself and for them; but rather in this way, that both all and each have all three each in His own nature. Nor that these things should differ in them, as in us memory is one thing, understanding another, love or charity another, but should be some one thing that is p. 216 equivalent to all, as wisdom itself; and should be so contained in the nature of each, as that He who has it is that which He has, as being an unchangeable and simple substance. If all this, then, has been understood, and so far as is granted to us to see or conjecture in things so great, has been made patently true, I know not why both the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit should not be called Love, and all together one love, just as both the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is called Wisdom, and all together not three, but one wisdom. For so also both the Father is God, and the Son God, and the Holy Ghost God, and all three together one God.\n29. And yet it is not to no purpose that in this Trinity the Son and none other is called the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit and none other the Gift of God, and God the Father alone is He from whom the Word is born, and from whom the Holy Spirit principally proceeds. And therefore I have added the word principally, because we find that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son also. But the Father gave Him this too, not as to one already existing, and not yet having it; but whatever He gave to the only-begotten Word, He gave by begetting Him. Therefore He so begat Him as that the common Gift should proceed from Him also, and the Holy Spirit should be the Spirit of both. This distinction, then, of the inseparable Trinity is not to be merely accepted in passing, but to be carefully considered; for hence it was that the Word of God was specially called also the Wisdom of God, although both Father and Holy Spirit are wisdom. If, then, any one of the three is to be specially called Love, what more fitting than that it should be the Holy Spirit?\u2014namely, that in that simple and highest nature, substance should not be one thing and love another, but that substance itself should be love, and love itself should be substance, whether in the Father, or in the Son, or in the Holy Spirit; and yet that the Holy Spirit should be specially called Love.\n30. Just as sometimes all the utterances of the Old Testament together in the Holy Scriptures are signified by the name of the Law. For the apostle, in citing a text from the prophet Isaiah, where he says, \u201cWith divers tongues and with divers lips will I speak to this people,\u201d yet prefaced it by, \u201cIt is written in the Law.\u201d 1002 And the Lord Himself says, \u201cIt is written in their Law, They hated me without a cause,\u201d 1003 whereas this is read in the Psalm. 1004 And sometimes that which was given by Moses is specially called the Law: as it is said, \u201cThe Law and the Prophets were until John;\u201d 1005 and, \u201cOn these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.\u201d 1006 Here, certainly, that is specially called the Law which was from Mount Sinai. And the Psalms, too, are signified under the name of the Prophets; and yet in another place the Saviour Himself says, \u201cAll things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms concerning me.\u201d 1007 Here, on the other side, He meant the name of Prophets to be taken as not including the Psalms. Therefore the Law with the Prophets and the Psalms taken together is called the Law universally, and the Law is also specially so called which was given by Moses. Likewise the Prophets are so called in common together with the Psalms, and they are also specially so called exclusive of the Psalms. And many other instances might be adduced to teach us, that many names of things are both put universally, and also specially applied to particular things, were it not that a long discourse is to be avoided in a plain case. I have said so much, lest any one should think that it was therefore unsuitable for us to call the Holy Spirit Love, because both God the Father and God the Son can be called Love.\n31. As, then, we call the only Word of God specially by the name of Wisdom, although universally both the Holy Spirit and the Father Himself is wisdom; so the Holy Spirit is specially called by the name of Love, although universally both the Father and the Son are love. But the Word of God, i.e. the only-begotten Son of God, is expressly called the Wisdom of God by the mouth of the apostle, where he says, \u201cChrist the power of God, and the wisdom of God.\u201d 1008 But where the Holy Spirit is called Love, is to be found by careful scrutiny of the language of John the apostle, who, after saying, \u201cBeloved, let us love one another, for love is of God,\u201d has gone on to say, \u201cAnd every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love.\u201d Here, manifestly, he has called that love God, which he said was of God; therefore God of God is love. But because both the Son is born of God the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father, it is rightly asked which of them we ought here to think is the rather called the love that is God. For the Father only is so God as not to be of God; and hence the love that is so God as to be of God, is either the Son or the Holy Spirit. But when, in what p. 217 follows, the apostle had mentioned the love of God, not that by which we love Him, but that by which He \u201cloved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiator for our sins,\u201d 1009 and thereupon had exhorted us also to love one another, and that so God would abide in us,\u2014because, namely, he had called God Love; immediately, in his wish to speak yet more expressly on the subject, \u201cHereby,\u201d he says, \u201cknow we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.\u201d Therefore the Holy Spirit, of whom He hath given us, makes us to abide in God, and Him in us; and this it is that love does. Therefore He is the God that is love. Lastly, a little after, when he had repeated the same thing, and had said \u201cGod is love,\u201d he immediately subjoined, \u201cAnd he who abideth in love, abideth in God, and God abideth in him;\u201d whence he had said above, \u201cHereby we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.\u201d He therefore is signified, where we read that God is love. Therefore God the Holy Spirit, who proceedeth from the Father, when He has been given to man, inflames him to the love of God and of his neighbor, and is Himself love. For man has not whence to love God, unless from God; and therefore he says a little after, \u201cLet us love Him, because He first loved us.\u201d 1010 The Apostle Paul, too, says, \u201cThe love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.\u201d 1011\nIsa. 28:11, 1 Cor. 14:21Isa. xxviii. 11 and 1 Cor. xiv. 21\n216:1003 216:1004 216:1005 216:1006 216:1007 216:1008 217:1009 217:1010 217:1011","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. III: Doctrinal Treat...","type":"page"}