Let no one indeed suppose that we, from having said that the Holy Spirit is conferred upon the saints alone, but that the benefits or operations of the Father and of the Son extend to good and bad, to just and unjust, by so doing give a preference to the Holy Spirit over the Father and the Son, or assert that His dignity is greater, which certainly would be a very illogical conclusion. For it is the peculiarity of His grace and operations that we have been describing. Moreover, nothing in the Trinity can be called greater or less, since the fountain of divinity alone contains all things by His word and reason, and by the Spirit of His mouth sanctifies all things which are worthy of sanctification, as it is written in the Psalm: By the word of the Lord were the heavens strengthened, and all their power by the Spirit of His mouth. (
Book I, Chapter 3, Part 7)
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are hypostases - or aspects, or characteristics, or expressions - of one ousia - or whole or being.
There is no substantive difference between an action of the Holy Spirit and that of the Father or Son. Just as when my hand or foot or eye moves it is accurate to say I have moved.
It is ousia that we worship. The hypostases are attributes we have identified to help us better understand (hypostases is literally "beneath-standing"). But it is the Being - the ultimate and eternal "I am" - that is God.
No comments:
Post a Comment