Chapter 22

The surpassing excellence of the Spirit’s nature is known not only because he bears titles common to Father and Son and shares in their operations, but also because, like Father and Son, he is beyond the reach of ordinary human thought.

What our Lord says of the Father as transcending human comprehension, and what he says of himself as Son, he says likewise of the Holy Spirit. “Righteous Father,” he says, “the world has not known you.” Here “world” does not mean the physical whole composed of heaven and earth, but this mortal life subject to countless changes.

Speaking of himself he says, “A little while longer and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.” Again, “world” means those bound to material and fleshly life, who look for truth only with bodily sight and, through unbelief in the resurrection, are incapable of seeing the Lord with the eyes of the heart.

The same is said of the Spirit: “The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, because he dwells with you.” A fleshly person who has never trained the mind for contemplation, but keeps it buried in fleshly desires as in mud, cannot raise the eyes toward the spiritual light of truth. The “world”—life enslaved to the passions of the flesh—can no more receive the Spirit’s grace than a weak eye can bear a ray of the sun.

But the Lord, whose teaching bears witness to purity of life, gives his disciples the power even now to behold and contemplate the Spirit: “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” Therefore, “the world cannot receive him, because it does not see him ... but you know him, because he dwells with you.”

Isaiah says likewise of God: “He who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and Spirit to those who tread upon it.” Those who tread earthly things beneath their feet and rise above them are testified to as worthy of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

What, then, ought we to think of the one whom the world cannot receive and whom only the saints can contemplate through purity of heart? What honor could be judged adequate to him?

Each of the other heavenly powers is understood to occupy a circumscribed place. The angel who stood beside Cornelius was not at that same moment with Philip. The angel who spoke to Zechariah beside the altar did not at the same time occupy his own station in heaven.

But the Spirit is believed to have been working at the same time in Habakkuk and in Daniel at Babylon, to have been with Jeremiah in prison and with Ezekiel by the Chebar. “The Spirit of the Lord fills the world.” And, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Where shall I flee from your presence?” The prophet also says, “I am with you, says the Lord ... and my Spirit remains among you.”

What kind of nature should be assigned to one who is everywhere present and exists together with God? Is it the nature that embraces all things, or a nature confined to particular places, like the angels as our argument has shown? No one would dare choose the latter.

Shall we not, then, exalt the one who is divine by nature, infinite in greatness, powerful in operations, and good in the blessings he gives? Shall we not give him glory?