And therefore, supply, he is manifested to you who keep my commandments, because you love me, and therefore you merit it.
33. (Vers. 24.). He who does not love me does not keep my words: and therefore such a one does not merit to see me. Such is the world and the worldly: below in chapter 15: "If the world hates you, know that it hated me before you"; and therefore it does not keep his commandments: and therefore he does not manifest himself to the world. And lest you think that he spoke his own words and not the Father's, he adds: And the word which you have heard is not mine, that is, the word: it is an antiptosis, in which one case is put for another: but of the Father who sent me: above in chapter 12: "I have not spoken of myself: but the Father who sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak."
Questions.
34. Quest. I. But the question is asked here first concerning what he says: If you love me, keep my commandments: and afterwards: I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete.
Therefore it seems that they could love and keep the commandments before the Holy Spirit was given to them. Or if they have him, why will he give and how?
I respond: It must be said that they had the Holy Spirit for loving and keeping the commandments; but he was promised to them by the Lord for fuller effects and a greater gift. Hence Augustine: "It remains that we understand that he who loves has the Holy Spirit, and by having him merits to have more, and by having more loves more."
35. Quest. II. Likewise the question is asked concerning what he says: I will ask the Father.
Augustine says, in On Nature and Grace, that "no one prays for that which he can do by himself": therefore if the Son prays for the giving of the Holy Spirit, the Son cannot give the Holy Spirit.
To this it must be responded that he asks in the same way as he merits; and this according to his human nature, according to which he suffered and was exalted, and by his passion and prayer merited for us the gift of the Holy Spirit, and according to that nature he could not give, but obtain.
36. Quest. III. Likewise the question is asked concerning what he says: He will give you another Paraclete.
For if the Paraclete is called an advocate, and an advocate is a mediator; but the Holy Spirit cannot be a mediator: therefore neither a Paraclete, therefore neither an advocate.
I respond: It must be said that the Holy Spirit is called the Paraclete in a twofold signification: both because He is a consoler by the hope of pardon, whence He was given to us as a pledge of the eternal inheritance ; and also because He is an advocate. But advocate is said in two ways: either with respect to the person, or with respect to the office. The Son is an advocate with respect to the person of the advocate, because He is the mediator; but the Holy Spirit with respect to the office.
Now the office of the advocate is threefold, namely to intercede, and this the Holy Spirit has: Romans 8: The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unutterable groanings.
To respond, and this the Holy Spirit does; Matthew 10: Do not think about how or what you shall speak: for it shall be given to you in that hour what you shall speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. The third is to convict the opposing party, and this belongs to the Holy Spirit: below in chapter 16: When He shall come, He will convict the world of sin, etc.
37. Question IV. Likewise, it is asked concerning what He says, that the world does not know the Holy Spirit, but you shall know Him, because He shall be in you.
But it is objected: because the Holy Spirit is in all things, in the good as well as in the evil, since He is God: therefore all know Him.
If you say that He does not speak of being present by presence, but by grace; this is false, because no one knows whether he is worthy of love or of hatred: therefore no one knows whether he has the Holy Spirit with respect to the effect of grace.
I respond: It must be said that here He speaks of knowledge of the Holy Spirit in His manifest effect; whence He speaks of His being in us, not by essence, but by effect, and therefore the response to the first objection is clear.
But it should be noted that the effect of the Holy Spirit is twofold: one kind, which is in us and regards us, such as to love, to believe, and to fear, and we are certain that we have these when we have them; another kind, which regards something above us, namely to make pleasing, which is to make acceptable to God, and with respect to this effect it is not known to us except through special revelation; it can nevertheless be known probably, though not with certainty.
38. Question V. Likewise, it is asked concerning what is said of the Father, that the Father will come: whence: We will come to him.
Why does He say this rather of Himself and the Father than of the Holy Spirit?
2. And it seems that this ought not to be said of the Father, because the Father sends the Son. But if the Father were to come at the same time as the Son, by the same reason by which He would send the Son, by the same reason He would also send Himself.
Likewise, how does He come who is everywhere and does not assume a creature?
I respond: It must be said that the coming of God to us, as Augustine says, is understood according to effect, not through essence; whence Augustine: "They come to us while we come to them: they come by helping, we come by obeying; they come by illuminating, we come by beholding; they come by filling, we come by receiving." Since therefore the works of the Trinity are undivided, when the Holy Spirit comes, according to truth the Father and the Son come; yet according to appropriation it is attributed to the Father, who is another of the persons.
To send, however, besides the fact that it denotes an effect, implies a personal distinction through authority and sub-authority: and therefore, even though the Father comes with the Son, He does not however send Himself with the Son.