Apologetics -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Celsus (Platonic philosopher), active 180; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
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.”[103] There is also a special working of God the
Father, besides that by which He bestowed upon all things the gift of
natural life. There is also a special ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ
to those upon whom He confers by nature the gift of reason, by means of
which they are enabled to be rightly what they are. There is also
another grace of the Holy Spirit, which is bestowed upon the deserving,
through the ministry of Christ and the working of the Father, in
proportion to the merits of those who are rendered capable of receiving
it. This is most clearly pointed out by the Apostle Paul, when
demonstrating that the power of the Trinity is one and the same, in the
words, “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; there are
diversities of administrations, but the same Lord; and there are
diversities of operations, but it is the same God who worketh all in
all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit
withal.”[104] From which it most clearly follows that there is no
difference in the Trinity, but that which is called the gift of the
Spirit is made known through the Son, and operated by God the Father.
“But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to
every one severally as He will.”[105]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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