Chapter 20 — Of the effects ascribed by Scripture to the Holy Spirit in respect of all creatures

In the light of what has already been said, we must now consider the effects ascribed by Scripture to the Holy Spirit.

We have already shown (Bk. 1, ch. 86.) that God’s goodness is the reason for his willing other things to exist, and that by his will he brought things into being. Therefore, the love whereby he loves his own goodness is the cause of things being created. Hence, as stated at the beginning of the Metaphysics, (Bk. 1, lect. 5.) certain philosophers of old said that the love of the gods was the cause of all things. Dionysius also says that God’s love did not allow him to be fruitless. (Pseudo-Dionysius, On the divine Names 4.) Now we established in the foregoing chapter that the Holy Spirit proceeds as the love whereby God loves himself. Hence the Holy Spirit is the cause of the creation: Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created (Ps 104[103]:30).

Also, seeing that the Holy Spirit proceeds by way of love, and that love is an impelling and moving force, any movement that God causes in things is rightly appropriated to the Holy Spirit. Now the first change wrought by God in things is that whereby he produced the various species out of formless created matter. Therefore, Sacred Scripture ascribes this work to the Holy Spirit: The Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters (Gen 1:2). For Augustine would have the waters to signify the prime matter over which the Spirit of the Lord is said to move not as being in motion, but as the principle of movement.

Again. God’s government of the world is understood to be a kind of movement insofar as God directs and moves all things to their respective ends. Accordingly, if impulse and movement belong to the Holy Spirit as love, it is fitting that government and increase be ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Hence it is said: The spirit of God has made me (Job 33:4); and: Your good spirit will lead me on a level path (Ps 143[142]:10).

And, since to govern subjects is the proper function of a lord, it is fitting that lordship be ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Thus the Apostle says: Now, the Lord is a Spirit (2 Cor 3:17), and we say in the Creed: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord.

Again. Life is revealed especially in movement, for we say that a thing lives when it moves itself, and in a general way we ascribe life to all things that move themselves to action. If, then, impulse and movement are ascribed to the Holy Spirit as love, life also is fittingly ascribed to him. Thus it is said: It is the spirit that gives life (John 6:64); and: I will give you Spirit and you shall live (Ezek 37:6). Also, in the Creed we confess our belief in the Holy Spirit, the giver of life. This is in harmony with the name ‘spirit,’ for an animal’s body lives by the vital spirit which is diffused throughout its members by the principle of life.