Chapter IX.
Therefore, whatever we have said about the Holy Spirit, we also attribute the same to the Father and the Son, untouched and undiscussed; although we know for certain that the holy and inseparable Trinity never operates anything outside of itself. And to make clear what I have said, I will briefly explain. The Trinity made the Incarnation of the Word, and yet the Incarnation belongs only to the Word (Augustine, Against the Sermon of the Arians, chapter 15). A voice from heaven made by the Trinity after the baptism of the Son, and yet it belongs only to the Father. The coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Son in the form of a dove (Luke 3:22) is made by the Trinity, and yet it belongs only to the Holy Spirit. The blessed Apostle confirms this threefold operation remaining in unity, saying: There are divisions of graces, but the same Spirit; and there are divisions of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are divisions of operations, but the same God who works all in all (1 Corinthians 12:4 et seq). Therefore these three grant grace to those who believe, because the substance of the Holy and inseparable Trinity is not one thing and another. When each, therefore, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are said to work, they all nevertheless work together. Wisdom created, the Spirit gave life, and with just judgment, he ordered. Therefore, by his justice, he distributes the world in various forms, and by his grace, he incomprehensibly dispenses, contains, and governs its members to such an extent that the governance of his providence is so just, so mysterious, so hidden that what is thought to be punishment is actually a remedy for the patient. Therefore, the one God existing in the Holy Trinity operates as follows: proving this about Himself, He says through the prophet Isaiah: 'I am the Lord, and there is no one else besides me' (Isaiah 45:6 and 7), meaning, besides my Word and my Spirit, my power and wisdom which are always in me; there is no other God and Savior, as the same prophet says: 'And the Lord will send them a savior who will save them from their sins' (ibidem 5). And again, from the person of the Father, the aforementioned prophet says: 'I have sworn by myself, the word has gone forth from my mouth, and it shall not return empty to me' (Isaiah XIX, 20; XLV, 23; LV, 11). Indeed, the Word of the Father did not return to him empty, for he has placed the pledges of our salvation, that is, a true soul and a true body, assumed into the right hand of the Father. Seeing this in the Spirit, the prophet says: 'Truly you are a hidden God' (Isaiah XLV, 15), that is, God the Savior of Israel in the flesh; and again: 'He had no form or comeliness' (Isaiah LIII, 2), so that divine power might be concealed in a human body; and again: 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is perverse' (Jeremiah XVII, 9). And again: Here is our God, who will not be considered like any other who has been seen on earth and has dwelt among men (Baruch 3:36), and again: Man of sorrows, knowing how to bear infirmities (ibid. 38); truly showing the human body through these words, and showing the true soul, who, knowing how to bear infirmities, overcame through divinity, making peace through the blood of his own cross, whether those things that are in the heavens or those things that are on earth (Isaiah 53:4; Colossians 1:28). For it is clear through these words, in the Lord Jesus Christ, not partly truth and partly falsehood: but all truth is in Him, that is, both of God and of man.