*Whereto* 5. Answer. Universall propositiōs or speeches are to be restrained. I answer, that when all things are said to be made by the sonne, that same universall proposition is restrained by John himselfe to a certeine kind of things: Without him (saith the evangelist) was nothing made that was made. Therefore it is first to be shewed that the holie spirit was made, and then will we conclude out of John, that if he were made, he was made of the sonne. The scripture doth no where saie that the holie spirit was made of the father or of the sonne, but to proceed, to come, and to be sent from them both. Now if these universall propositions are to suffer no restraint, it shall follow that the father was made of the sonne: than the which what is more absurd and wicked?
6. Objectiō. The spirit knoweth not the father & the sonne. Againe, they object out of Matth. 11. None knoweth the sonne but the father, and none the father but the sonne; to wit, of and by himselfe: for otherwise both the angels, & to whomsoever else it shall please the sonne to reveale the father, these doo know both the father and the sonne. Now if so be the spirit be not equall with the father and the sonne in knowledge, he is not onelie unequall and lesser than they, but also no God: for ignorance is not/554. incident unto God.
*Whereto* 6. Answer. How exclusive propositions or speeches are to be interpreted. I answer, that where in holie scripture we doo meete with universall propositions negative or exclusive, they are not to be expounded of one person, so as the rest are excluded; but creatures or false gods are to be excluded, and whatsoever else is without or beside the essence and being of God. Reasons to proove and confirme this interpretation, I could bring verie manie, whereof I will adde some for example. In the seaventh of John it is said; When Christ shall come, none shall knowe from whence he is: notwithstanding which words the Jewes thought that neither God nor his angels should be ignorant from whence Christ/397. should be. In the fourth to the Galathians; A mans covenant or testament confirmed with authoritie no bodie dooth abrogate, or adde anie thing thereunto. No just man dooth so; but tyrants and truce-breakers care not for covenants. In John eight; Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the middest. And yet it is not to be supposed that a multitude of people was not present, and the disciples of Christ likewise; but the word Solus, alone, is referred to the woman’s accusers, who withdrew themselves awaie everie one, and departed. In the sixt of Marke; When it was evening, the ship was in the middest of the sea, and he alone upon land: he was not alone upon land or shore, for the same was not utterlie void of dwellers: but he had not anie of his disciples with him, nor anie bodie to carrie him a shipboord unto his disciples. Manie phrases or formes of speeches like unto these are to be found in the sacred scriptures, and in authors both Greeke and Latine, whereby we understand, that neither universall negative nor exclusive particles are strictlie to be urged, but to be explaned in such sort as the matter in hand will beare. When as therefore the sonne alone is said to know the father, and it is demanded whether the holie spirit is debarred from knowing the father; out of other places of scriptures judgment is to be given in this case. In some places the holie spirit is counted and reckoned with the father and the sonne jointlie: wherefore he is not to be separated. Else-where also it is attributed to the holie spirit that he alone dooth know the things which be of God, and searcheth the deepe secrets of God: wherefore from him the knowing of God is not to be excluded./
555.7. Objectiō. The spirit praieth for us.They doo yet further object, that it is not convenient or fit for God after the manner of suters to humble and cast downe himselfe: but the holie spirit dooth so, praieng and intreating for us with unspeakeable grones: Rom. 8. Ergo the holie spirit is not God.
*Whereto* 7. Answer. The spirit dooth provoke us to praie. I answer that the holie spirit dooth praie and intreat, in so much as he provoketh us to praie, and maketh us to grone and sigh. Oftentimes also in the scriptures is that action or deed attributed unto God, which we being stirred up and mooved by him doo bring to passe. So it is said of God unto Abraham; Now I know that thou fearest God: and yet before he would have sacrificed Isaach, God knew the verie heart of Abraham: and therefore this word Cognovi, I know, is as much as Cognoscere feci, I have made or caused to know. And that the spirit to praie and intreat, is the same that, to make to praie and intreat, the apostle teacheth even there, writing that we have received the spirit of adoption, in whome we crie Abba Father. Where it is manifest that it is we which crie, the Holie-ghost provoking and forcing us thereunto.
8. Objectiō. The spirit is sent from the father and the son.Howbeit they go further, and frame this reason. Whosoever is sent, the same is inferior and lesser than he of whome he is sent, and furthermore he is of a comprehensible substance, bicause he passeth by locall motion from place to place: but the holie spirit is sent of the father and the sonne, John. 14, 15, & 16. It is powred foorth and shed upon men, Acts. 10. Ergo the holie spirit is lesser than the Father and the Sonne, and of a comprehensible nature, and consequentlie not verie God./
398.*Whereto* 8. Answer. How the spirit is sent. I answer first, that he which is sent is not alwaies lesser than he that sendeth: to proove which position anie meane wit may inferre manie instances. Furthermore, touching the sending of the holie spirit, we are here to imagine no changing or shifting of place. For if the spirit when he goeth foorth from the father and is sent, changeth his place, then must the father also be in a place, that he may leave it and go to another. And as for the incomprehensible nature of the spirit, he cannot leaving his place passe unto another. Therefore the sending of the spirit is the eternall and unvariable will of God, to doo something by the holie spirit; and the revealing and executing of this will by the/556. operation and working of the spirit. The spirit was sent to the apostles; which spirit was present with them, sith it is present everie-where: but then according to the will of God the father hee shewed himselfe present and powerfull.
Some man may saie; If sending be a revealing and laieng open of presence and power, then may the father be said to be sent, bicause he himselfe is also revealed. I answer, that when the spirit is said to be sent, not onlie the revealing, but the order also of his revealing is declared; bicause the will of the father and of the sonne, of whom he is sent, going before, not in time, but in order of persons, the spirit dooth reveale himselfe, the father, and also the sonne. The father revealeth himselfe by others, the sonne and the holie spirit, so that his will goeth before. Therefore sending is the common worke of all the three persons; howbeit, for order of dooing, it is distinguished by diverse names. The father will reveale himselfe unto men with the sonne and the spirit, and be powerfull in them, and therefore is said to send. The sonne and the spirit doo assent unto the will of the father, and will that to be doone by themselves, which God will to be doone by them; these are said to be sent. And bicause the will of the sonne dooth go before the spirit in order of persons, he is also said to send the spirit.
9. Objectiō. The spirit speaketh not of himselfe.Yet for all this they allege, that if the spirit had perfection, then would he speake of himselfe, and not stand in need alwaies of anothers admonishment: but he speaketh not of himselfe, but speaketh what he heareth, as Christ expresselie testifieth John. 16. Ergo he is unperfect, and whatsoever he hath it is by partaking, and consequentlie he is not God.
*Whereto* The 9. answer. I answer, that this argument is stale: for it was objected by heretikes long ago against them that held the true opinion, as CyrillCyrill. lib. 13. thesaur. cap. 3. saith; who answereth, that by the words of Christ is rather to be gathered, that the son and the spirit are of the same substance. For, the spirit is named the mind of Christ. 1. Cor. 2: and therefore he speaketh not of his owne proper will, or against his will in whom and from whom he is; but hath all his will and working naturallie proceeding from the substance as it were of him.