Apologetics -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Celsus (Platonic philosopher), active 180; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
historical, but according to the spiritual method of interpretation.
4. Some indeed of our predecessors have observed, that in the New
Testament, whenever the Spirit is named without that adjunct which
denotes quality, the Holy Spirit is to be understood; as _e.g._ in the
expression, “Now the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace;”[82]
and, “Seeing ye began in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect in the
flesh?”[83] We are of opinion that this distinction may be observed in
the Old Testament also, as when it is said, “He that giveth His Spirit
to the people who are upon the earth, and Spirit to them who walk
thereon.”[84] For, without doubt, every one who walks upon the earth
(_i.e._ earthly and corporeal beings) is a partaker also of the Holy
Spirit, receiving it from God. My Hebrew master also used to say that
those two seraphim in Isaiah, which are described as having each six
wings, and calling to one another, and saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord God of hosts,”[85] were to be understood of the only-begotten Son
of God and of the Holy Spirit. And we think that that expression also
which occurs in the hymn of Habakkuk, “In the midst either of the two
living things, or of the two lives, Thou wilt be known,”[86] ought to be
understood of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. For all knowledge of the
Father is obtained by revelation of the Son through the Holy Spirit, so
that both of these beings which, according to the prophet, are called
either “living things” or “lives,” exist as the ground of the knowledge
of God the Father. For as it is said of the Son, that “no one knoweth
the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him,”[87] the
same also is said by the apostle of the Holy Spirit, when he declares,
“God hath revealed them to us by His Holy Spirit; for the Spirit
searcheth all things, even the deep things of God;”[88] and again in the
Gospel, when the Saviour, speaking of the divine and profounder parts of
His teaching, which His disciples were not yet able to receive, thus
addresses them: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot
bear them now; but when the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is come, He will
teach you all things, and will bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you.”[89] We must understand, therefore,
that as the Son, who alone knows the Father, reveals Him to whom He
will, so the Holy Spirit, who alone searches the deep things of God,
reveals God to whom He will: “For the Spirit bloweth where He
listeth.”[90] We are not, however, to suppose that the Spirit derives
His knowledge through revelation from the Son. For if the Holy Spirit
knows the Father through the Son’s revelation, He passes from a state of
ignorance into one of knowledge; but it is alike impious and foolish to
confess the Holy Spirit, and yet to ascribe to Him ignorance. For even
although something else existed before the Holy Spirit, it was not by
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