[285] The above paragraph is a summary of expressions constantly met with in the Fathers. It is S. Ambrose who protests against the idea that the priest can be spoken of as having power over the Divine Things which he ministers, see De Spiritu Sancto, praef. 18, lib. i. 11, 118: 'nostra sunt servitia sed tua sacramenta. Neque enim humanae opis est divina conferre.' S. Augustine, among others, draws the distinction between gifts from the Spirit and the gift of Himself. Ep. cxciv.: 'aliter adiuvat nondum inhabitans, aliter inhabitans: nam nondum inhabitans adiuvat ut sint fideles, inhabitans adiuvat iam fideles.' Didymus, de Spiritu Sancto 15, calls attention to the distinction in the New Testament between πνεῦμα (without the article) i.e. 'a spiritual gift,' and τὸ πνεῦμα, i.e. the Spirit Himself: cf. Westcott on S. John vii. 39.
[286] Greg. Naz. Orat. xxxi. 8.
[287] See Athan. Epp. ad Serapion. i. 17. Cyril Hieros. Cat. xvi. 24. Iren. v. 13, 2. Basil, de Spiritu Sancto, iii. 5.
[288] The Dict. of Chr. Biog., Art. Holy Ghost (by Dr. Swete), has an admirable summary of the theology of the subject.
[289] See Godet on S. John xv. 26, 27.
[290] Athan. Epp. ad Serap. i. 19. S. John xiv. 16, 18, 23.
[291] Plato's human trinity is made up of reason, spirit [θυμός], and desire: S. Augustine's of memory (i.e. personal identity), reason, and will; or mind, knowledge, and love. Nothing has been said in the text of Patristic and more recent attempts to express the function of the Holy Spirit in the inner relations of the Trinity. Some of the Fathers speak of the Holy Spirit as completing the circle of the Divine Life, or as 'the return of God upon Himself,' 'the bond of the Father and the Son.' This eternal function would interpret His temporal mission to bring all creatures back into union with God. Not very differently S. Augustine speaks of Him as the Love of the Father and the Son: 'Vides Trinitatem si caritatem vides. Ecce tria sunt; amans et quod amatur et amor.' And this Love is itself personal and coordinate: 'commune aliquid est Patris et Filii; at ipsa communio consubstantialis et coaeterna.' But in such speculation they allow themselves with much reserve and expression of unwillingness.
In fact it is easy to see that an eternally living God, knowing and loving, must be a God Whose Being involves eternal relationships. Knowledge involves a relation of subject and object: to make love possible there must be a lover and a loved. It is more difficult to see how a perfect relationship must be threefold; but there are true lines of thought which lead up to this, such, for instance, as make us see first in the family, the type of complete life. Love which is only a relation of two, is selfish or unsatisfied: it demands an object and a product of mutual love. See especially Richard of S. Victor, de Trin. Pars i. lib. iii. cc. 14, 15: 'Communio amoris non potest esse omnino minus quam in tribus personis. Nihil autem (ut dictum est) gloriosius, nihil magnificentius, quam quicquid habes utile et dulce in commune deducere: ... hujusmodi dulcedinis delicias solus non possidet qui in exhibita sibi dilectione socium et condilectum non habet; quamdiu condilectum non habet, praecipui gaudii communione caret.' See also Sartorius, Doctrine of Divine Love (Clark's Foreign Theol. Libr.), p. 16.
[292] Microcosmus, B. ix. C. iv. (E. T. vol. ii. p. 660.)
[293] See especially Gal. i. 8, 9.