Chapter 19 — The meaning of statements that are made about the Holy Spirit

Therefore, as we are taught by the authority of Sacred Scripture, we firmly hold that the Holy Spirit is true God, subsistent and personally distinct from the Father and the Son. We must now consider how this truth is to be understood in both respects, so that we may be able to defend it against the attacks of unbelievers.

For greater clearness, we must begin by observing that in every intellectual nature there is a will, because the intellect is actuated by an intelligible form inasmuch as it actually understands, even as a natural thing acquires the act of natural being by its own form. Now, a natural thing has an inclination to its proper operations, and to the proper end to which it attains by its operation, by the form that perfects it in its species, since a thing’s operation and end follow the kind of thing that it is. Hence from the intelligible form there results in the intelligent being an inclination to its proper operations and end. This inclination of the intellectual nature is the will, and is the principle of those operations that are in our power, and whereby the intellect operates for the sake of an end, because the end and the good are the object of the will. Consequently, there is a will in every intelligent being.

Now, since several acts are seen to belong to the will, such as desire, delight, hate, and so forth, we find that the one principle and root of all is love. This may be explained as follows: the will, as stated above, (Bk. 3, ch. 88.) is in intellectual beings what the natural inclination is in natural beings, and this inclination is known as the natural appetite. Now the natural inclination arises from the natural thing having an association with or aptitude for the thing to which it is moved through its form (which we have stated to be the principle of its inclination); for instance, a heavy body in reference to a lower position. Hence this too is the source of every inclination of the will, insofar as by the intelligible form something is apprehended as suitable or attractive. Now, to be attracted towards a thing, as such, is to love it. Therefore, every inclination of the will, as well as of the sensitive appetite, has its origin in love. Thus, through loving a thing, we desire it if it be absent; we rejoice in it when it is present; we grieve when we are parted from it; whatever parts us from the object loved is to us an object of hate and anger.

Consequently, that which is loved is not only in the intellect of the lover, but also in his will: yet not in the same way. For it is in his intellect by its specific likeness, whereas it is in his will as the term of a movement is in its proportionate motive principle, by reason of the proportion and aptitude of the principle to that term. Thus, in a sense, the higher place is in the flame because fire is light, and consequently is proportionate and apt for such a place, and the kindled fire is in the kindling fire by the likeness of its form.

Since, then, we have proved that there is a will in every intellectual nature, and since God is an intelligent being, as we have shown, (Bk. 1, ch. 44.) it follows that there is a will in him: not that his will is something over and above his essence (as neither is his intellect, as we have proved above), (Bk. 1, ch. 45.) but that his will is his very substance. (Bk. 1, ch. 73.) And seeing that God’s intellect also is his very substance, it follows that in God intellect and will are one and the same. It has been sufficiently explained in the first book (Bk. 1, ch. 31.) how things that elsewhere are many are one in God.

And since we have proved (Bk. 1, ch. 45.) that God’s operation is his very essence, and that his will is his essence, (Bk. 1, ch. 73.) it follows that in God will is not power or habit, but act. Now we have shown that every act of the will springs from love. Therefore, there is love in God.

Also, since, as we proved in the first book, (Bk. 1, ch. 80.) the proper object of the divine will is the goodness of God, it follows that he himself and his goodness are the first and principal object of his love. Now it has been shown that the beloved object must be, in a sense, in the lover’s will. Therefore, since God loves himself, it follows that God is in his own will as the object loved is in the lover. Now the beloved object is in the lover inasmuch as it is loved, and love is an act of the will; and the act of God’s will is his being. Therefore, God’s being by way of love in his will is not accidental being, as in us, but essential being. Consequently, God considered as existing in his will is truly and substantially God.

Moreover, the fact that a thing is in the will as a beloved object in a lover bears a certain relation to the idea conceived by the intellect, and to the thing itself the idea of which is called the ‘word.’ For a thing would not be loved if it were not known in some way; nor is it the mere idea of the beloved object that is loved, but the object inasmuch as it is a good in itself. Hence the love whereby God is in his own will as the beloved in the lover must proceed both from the Word of God, and from God who utters the Word.

And seeing that we have proved that the object loved is not in the lover as to its specific likeness as the object understood is in an intelligent being, and since whatever proceeds from another as begotten proceeds from its begetter as to its specific likeness, it follows that the procession of a thing to its being in a will as the beloved object in the lover is not by way of generation, while the procession of a thing to its being in an intellect is by way of generation, as we have shown above. Therefore, God proceeding by way of love does not proceed as begotten, and consequently cannot receive the name of Son.

Since, however, the beloved object exists in the lover as inclining and, as it were, inwardly impelling the lover to the thing loved, and since the breath (spiritus) is a living being’s impulse from within itself, it is becoming that God, proceeding by way of love, should receive the name of Spirit, because with God to breathe is to love. (Ejus spiratione quasi quadam aspiratione existente: literally, His Spiration being a kind of aspiration.)

Hence the Apostle ascribes a certain impulse to spirit and love: All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (Rom 8:14), and: The love of Christ controls us (2 Cor 5:14).

And as every intellectual movement is denominated from its term, and as the aforesaid love is that by which God himself is loved, it is becoming that God, proceeding by way of love, be called the Holy Spirit, because things consecrated to God are wont to be called holy.