Chapter VII.
Therefore, it is proper to God to not have begun but to always be the same, which He always is. This is confirmed by God Himself speaking to Moses: Go and say to the children of Israel: He who is, has sent me to you (Exodus III, 14). This is the Holy Spirit, who is neither born nor made, but is uncreated, just as the Father and the Son. This is the Holy Spirit who uplifts the fallen and gives them an opportunity to rise, and dispenses everything according to the diversity of merits and the will of the Father and the Son, knowing all things not through investigation, but through the unity of nature. He is the one of whom the prophet says: The Spirit of the Lord is manifold, pure, and undefiled (Wisdom 7:22). Just as light does not receive darkness, so the Holy Spirit, by nature, has the capacity to be free from all impurities. This is the one who separates himself from thoughts that are without God. This is the one who pours himself into holy souls and establishes them as friends of God and prophets. Therefore, unless someone has the Holy Spirit, neither the Father nor the Son, with whom the one God is united, come to him to make their dwelling with him. This is the spirit of wisdom, which is called manifold for this reason, because it contains many things within itself, and what it has, this also is, and it is one in all things, nor is it changed by anything that it does; just as an image from a ring, which passes into wax and does not leave the ring. This is confirmed by the Lord, saying to Moses: 'Therefore I will take of the spirit that is in you, and will give to them seventy' (Num. XI, 17), as if fire is transferred from a small fire, without any harm to the source from which it is taken. Therefore, because of this immutability and diverse operation, it has been said by the Lord concerning St. John the Baptist that he came in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17). This is the one whom God sent into our hearts, crying out: Abba, Father (Galatians 4:6); and in whom we cry out: Abba, Father. For it has been said of both that we have received the Spirit crying out: Abba, Father; and that we have received the Spirit in whom we cry out: Abba, Father (Romans 8:15). He explained therefore what he said, shouting, that is, making us shout. This is the Spirit, who with indescribable groans intercedes for us, when human frailty does not know what it ought to pray for. The holy Apostle taught us not only in word, but also demonstrated it to us by his own example, when he prayed unknowingly against his own advantage and perfection, that the thorn of the flesh, which was striking him, would depart from him. Having been taught by the Holy Spirit himself afterwards, he said that it was given to him, so that he would not be exalted by the greatness of his revelations and would suffer some harm. But because the Lord loved him, who always used to show the power of his divinity through weak things, he did not do what he was asking for ignorantly. He himself is the Holy Spirit, who, in the Catholic Church spread throughout the whole world, has poured out himself as a source of all grace. This is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus (Ibidem 9), who, at the end of the world, will destroy the antichrist by his power (II Thess. II, 8). This is the Holy Spirit, whom none of the heretics have; although they may think they have the baptism of Christ, unless they come to the Church of Christ, they cannot have the Spirit of Christ. This is proven by the blessed apostle Paul, who says: If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him (Rom. VIII, 9). And again: No one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit (I Cor. XII, 3). This is confirmed by the blessed apostle and evangelist John, who says: By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world; and again: Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God (I Joan. V, 5, et seq). This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not in water only, but in water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three who testify: the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three are one.