The Holy Spirit as the shared deity and love of Father and Son
Augustine is explaining the Holy Spirit's distinct identity within the Trinity, reporting the view that the Spirit is the very deity or love shared by Father and Son.
But the Holy Spirit has not yet been discussed as fully and carefully by the learned and great interpreters of the divine Scriptures so that what is proper to him can be easily understood—the property by which it comes about that we cannot call him either Son or Father, but only Holy Spirit—except that they proclaim him to be the gift of God, so that we believe God does not give a gift inferior to himself. The learned interpreters maintain, however, that the Holy Spirit is not begotten, as a Son from the Father—for Christ alone is the only Son—nor from the Son, as a grandson of the supreme Father, and yet that he owes what he is to no one except the Father, from whom all things come, so that we do not set up two principles without beginning, which is utterly false and absurd and belongs not to the catholic faith but to the error of certain heretics.
Some, however, have dared to believe that the Holy Spirit is the very communion of the Father and the Son and, so to speak, the deity—which the Greeks call theotēs—so that, since the Father is God and the Son is God, the deity itself, by which they are joined to each other—the one by begetting the Son, the other by clinging to the Father—is equated to him from whom he was begotten. They say, then, that this deity, which they also want to be understood as the love and charity of both toward each other, is called the Holy Spirit, and they support this opinion of theirs with many proofs from the Scriptures: whether from what is said, “because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5), or from many other such testimonies, and from the very fact that through the Holy Spirit we are reconciled to God. For this reason, when he is called the gift of God, they want it to be sufficiently signified that the Holy Spirit is the love of God. For we are not reconciled to him except through love, by which we are also called children of God, no longer under fear as servants, because perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), and we have received the spirit of freedom, in which we cry out: “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). And because, having been reconciled and called back into friendship through love, we will be able to know all the secrets of God, for this reason it is said of the Holy Spirit: “He will lead you into all truth” (John 16:13). For this reason also the confidence for preaching the truth, with which the apostles were filled at his coming, is rightly attributed to love, because lack of confidence is attributed to fear, which perfect love casts out. And therefore he is called the gift of God, because no one enjoys what he knows unless he loves it. But to enjoy the wisdom of God is nothing other than to cling to it by love, and no one remains in what he perceives except by love. And therefore he is called the Holy Spirit, because whatever things are hallowed are hallowed in order to remain, and there is no doubt that holiness is named from hallowing.
The asserters of this opinion make use especially of that testimony which is written: “What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6), “because God is spirit” (John 4:24). For here he speaks of our regeneration, which is not according to Adam from the flesh, but according to Christ from the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if the Holy Spirit is mentioned in this place, when it is said, “because God is spirit,” they say it should be noticed that it was not said, “because the Spirit is God,” but “because God is spirit,” so that the deity of the Father and the Son is here called God, which is the Holy Spirit. To this is added another testimony, which the apostle John says: “because God is love” (1 John 4:8). For here too he does not say, “Love is God,” but “God is love,” so that the deity itself may be understood as love. And in that enumeration of things connected to one another, where it is said: “All things are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:22-23), and: “The head of the woman is the man, the head of the man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God” (1 Corinthians 11:3), no mention is made of the Holy Spirit, and they say this pertains to their point, because the connection itself is not usually numbered among the things that are connected. Hence in that place also those who read more attentively seem to recognize the Trinity itself, when it is said: “For from him and through him and in him are all things” (Romans 11:36)—from him, as from the one who owes his being to no one; through him, as through a mediator; in him, as in the one who contains, that is, joins together by connection.
Latin
De spiritu autem sancto nondum tam copiose ac diligenter disputatum est a doctis et magnis diuinarum scripturarum tractatoribus, ut intellegi facile possit eius proprium, quo proprio fit, ut eum neque filium neque patrem dicere possimus, sed tantum spiritum sanctum, nisi quod eum donum dei esse praedicant, ut deum credamus non se ipso inferius donum dare. seruant tamen, ut non genitum spiritum sanctum tamquam filium de patre praedicent — unicus enim est Christus — nec de filio tamquam nepotem summi patris nec tamen id quod est nulli debere, sed patri, ex quo omnia, ne duo constituamus principia sine principio, quod falsissimum et absurdissimum est et non catholicae fidei, sed quorundam haereticorum errori proprium. ausi sunt tamen quidam ipsam communionem patris et filii atque, ut ita dicam, deitatem, quam Graeci dsotTjca appellant, spiritum sanctum credere: ut, quoniam pater deus et filius deus, ipsa deitas, qua sibi copulantur et ille gignendo filium et ille patri cohaerendo, ei a quo est genitus aequetur. hanc ergo deitatem, quam etiam dilectionem in se inuicem amborum caritatemque uolunt intellegi, spiritum sanctum appellatum dicunt multisque scripturarum documentis adsunt huic opinioni suae: siue illo, quod dictum est: quoniam caritas dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris per spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis, siue aliis multis talibus testimoniis, et eo ipso, quod per spiritum sanctum reconciliamur deo: unde etiam cum donum dei dicitur, satis significari uolunt caritatem dei esse spiritum sanctum. non enim reconciliamur illi nisi per dilectionem, qua etiam filii dei appellamur, non iam sub timore tamquam serui, quia consummata dilectio foras mittit timorem, et spiritum libertatis accepimus, in quo clamamus: abba pater. et quia reconciliati et in amicitiam reuocati per caritatem poterimus omnia dei secreta cognoscere, propterea de spiritu sancto dicitur: ipse uos inducet in omnem ueritatem; propterea et confidentia praedicandae ueritatis, qua inpleti sunt in aduentu eius apostoli, recte caritati tribuitur, quia et diffidentia timori datur, quem consummatio caritatis excludit. et ideo donum dei dicitur, quia eo quod quisque nouit non fruitur, nisi id diligat. frui autem sapientia dei nihil est aliud quam ei dilectione cohaerere, neque quisquam in eo quod percipit permanet nisi dilectione; et ideo spiritus sanctus dicitur, quoniam ad permanendum sanciuntur quaecumque sanciuntur nec dubium est a sanciendo sanctitatem uocari. maxime autem illo testimonio utuntur assertores huius sententiae, quod scriptum est: quod natum est de carne, caro est; et quod natum est de spiritu, spiritus est, quoniam deus spiritus est. hic enim regenerationem nostram dicit, quae non secundum Adam de carne est, sed secundum Christum de spiritu sancto. quapropter si spiritus sancti hoc loco facta est commemoratio, cum dictum est, quoniam deus spiritus est, animaduertendum dicunt non dictum esse quoniam spiritus deus est), sed: quoniam deus spiritus est, ut ipsa deitas patris et filii hoc loco dicta sit deus, quod est spiritus sanctus. huc accedit aliud testimonium, quod dicit Iohannes apostolus, quoniam deus dilectio est. etiam hic enim non ait 'dilectio deus est', sed: deus dilectio est, ut ipsa deitas dilectio intellegatur. et quod in illa enumeratione conexarum sibi rerum, ubi dicitur: omnia uestra sunt, uos autem Christi, Christus autem dei, et: caput mulieris uir, caput uiri Christus, caput autem Christi deus, nulla fit commemoratio spiritus sancti, ad hoc pertinere dicunt, quia non fere in his, quae sibi conexa sunt, numerari solet ipsa conexio. unde in illo etiam loco trinitatem ipsam uidentur agnoscere, qui legunt adtentius, cum dicitur: quoniam ex ipso et per ipsum et in ipso sunt omnia: ex ipso, tamquam ex eo, qui nulli debet quod est; per ipsum, tamquam per mediatorem; in ipso, tamquam in eo, qui continet, id est copulatione coniungit.