John 3:34

Emaciation displeases not us; for it is not by weight that God bestows flesh, any more than He does "the Spirit by measure." More easily, it may be, through the "strait gate" of salvation will slenderer flesh enter; more speedily will lighter flesh rise; longer in the sepulchre will drier flesh retain its firmness.

As the fount of the Spirit, [Christ] imparts him. He is speaking of the working of the Spirit, which people receive in some measure. For the Son himself has the full working of the Spirit in its entirety. Truly, the Son has the entire Spirit in essence and not in some measure, as a created being might have. Therefore, he himself imparts the Spirit, and by their petitions the saints make Christ supply the Spirit.

"And He had in His right hand seven stars." He said that in His right hand He had seven stars, because the Holy Spirit of sevenfold agency was given into His power by the Father. As Peter exclaimed to the Jews: "Being at the right hand of God exalted, He hath shed forth this Spirit received from the Father, which ye both see and hear." Moreover, John the Baptist had also anticipated this, by saying to his disciples: "For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him. The Father," says he, "loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hands." Those seven stars are the seven churches, which he names in his addresses by name, old calls them to whom he wrote epistles. Not that they are themselves the only, or even the principal churches; but what he says to one, he says to all. For they are in no respect different, that on that ground any one should prefer them to the larger number of similar small ones. In the whole world Paul taught that all the churches are arranged by sevens, that they are called seven, and that the Catholic Church is one. And first of all, indeed, that he himself also might maintain the type of seven churches, he did not exceed that number. But he wrote to the Romans, to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Thessalonians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians; afterwards he wrote to individual persons, so as not to exceed the number of seven churches. And abridging in a short space his announcement, he thus says to Timothy: "That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the Church of the living God." We read also that this typical number is announced by the Holy Spirit by the month of Isaiah: "Of seven women which took hold of one man." The one man is Christ, not born of seed; but the seven women are seven churches, receiving His bread, and clothed with his apparel, who ask that their reproach should be taken away, only that His name should be called upon them. The bread is the Holy Spirit, which nourishes to eternal life, promised to them, that is, by faith. And His garments wherewith they desire to be clothed are the glory of immortality, of which Paul the apostle says: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on mortality." Moreover, they ask that their reproach may be taken away-that is, that they may be cleansed from their sins: for the reproach is the original sin which is taken away in baptism, and they begin to be called Christian men, which is, "Let thy name be called upon us." Therefore in these seven churches, of one Catholic Church are believers, because it is one in seven by the quality of faith and election. Whether writing to them who labour in the world, and live of the frugality of their labours, and are patient, and when they see certain men in the Church wasters, and pernicious, they hear them, lest there should become dissension, he yet admonishes them by love, that in what respects their faith is deficient they should repent; or to those who dwell in cruel places among persecutors, that they should continue faithful; or to those who, under the pretext of mercy, do unlawful sins in the Church, and make them manifest to be done by others; or to those that are at ease in the Church; or to those who are negligent, and Christians only in name; or to those who are meekly instructed, that they may bravely persevere in faith; or to those who study the Scriptures, and labour to know the mysteries of their announcement, and are unwilling to do God's work that is mercy and love: to all he urges penitence, to all he declares judgment.

"For God giveth not the Spirit by measure."

Again, as I said, he brings down his discourse to lower ground, varying it and making it suitable to be received by those who heard it then; otherwise he could not have raised them and increased their fear. For had he spoken anything great and sublime concerning Jesus Himself, they would not have believed, but might even have despised Him. Therefore he leads up all to the Father, speaking for a while of Christ as of a man. But what is it that he saith, "God giveth not the Spirit by measure"? He would show that we all have received the operation of the Spirit, by measure, (for in this place he means by "Spirit" the operation of the Spirit, for this it is that is divided,) but that Christ hath all Its operation unmeasured and entire. Now if His operations be unmeasured, much more His Essence. Seest thou too that the Spirit is Infinite? How then can He who hath received all the operation of the Spirit, who knoweth the things of God, who saith, "We speak that We have heard, and testify that We have seen" (c. iii. 11), be rightly suspected? He saith nothing which is not "of God," or which is not of "the Spirit." And for a while he uttereth nothing concerning God the Word, but maketh all his doctrine credible by (reference to) the Father and the Spirit. For that there is a God they knew, and that there is a Spirit they knew, (even though they held not a right opinion concerning Him,) but that there is a Son, they knew not. It is for this reason that he ever has recourse to the Father and the Spirit, thence confirming his words.

"For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God." Himself is the true God, and God sent Him: God sent God. Join both, one God, true God sent by God. Ask concerning them singly, He is God; ask concerning them both, they are God. Not individually God, and both Gods; but each individual God, and both God. For so great is the charity of the Holy Spirit - there, so great the peace of unity, that when thou questionest about them individually, the answer to thee is, God; when thou askest concerning the Trinity, thou gettest for answer, God. For if the spirit of man, when it cleaves to God, is one spirit, as the apostle openly declares, "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit;" how much more is the equal Son, joined to the Father, together with Him one God! Hear another testimony. You know how many believed, when they sold all they had and laid it at the apostles' feet, that it might be distributed to each according to his need; and what saith the Scripture of that gathering of the saints? "They had one soul and one heart in the Lord." If charity made one soul of so many souls, and one heart of so many hearts, how great must be the charity between the Father and the Son! Surely it must be greater than that between those men who had one heart. If, then, the heart of many brethren was one by charity, if the soul of many brethren was one by charity, wouldst thou say that God the Father and God the Son are two? If they are two Gods, there is not the highest charity between them. For if charity is here so great as to make thy soul and thy friend's soul one soul, how can it be then that the Father and the Son is not one God? Far be unfeigned faith from this thought. In short, how excellent that charity is, understand hence: the souls of many men are many, and if they love one another, it is one soul; still, in the case of men, they may be called many souls, because the union is not so strong. But there it is right for thee to say one God; two or three Gods it is not right for thee to say. From this, the supreme and surpassing excellency of charity is shown thee to be such, that a greater cannot be.

"For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God." This, of course, he said of Christ, to distinguish himself from Christ. What then? Did not God send John himself? Did he not say himself, "I am sent before Him"? and, "He that sent me to baptize with water"? And is it not of John that it is said, "Behold, I send my messenger before Thee, and he shall prepare Thy way"? Does he not himself speak the words of God, he of whom it is said that he is more than a prophet? Then, if God sent him too, and he speaks the words of God, how do we understand him to have distinctly said of Christ, "He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God"? But see what he adds: "For God giveth not the Spirit by measure." What is this, "For God giveth not the Spirit by measure"? We find that God does give the Spirit by measure. Hear the apostle when he says, "According to the measure of the gift of Christ." To men He gives by measure, to the only Son He gives not by measure. How does He give to men by measure? "To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom: to another the word of wisdom according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another kinds of tongues; to another the gift of healing. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gift of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?" This man has one gift, that man another; and what that man has, this has not: there is a measure, a certain division of gifts. To men, therefore, it is given by measure, and concord among them makes one body. As the hand receives one kind of gift to work, the eye another to see, the ear another to hear, the foot another to walk; nevertheless the soul that does all is one, in the hand to work, in the foot to walk, in the ear to hear, in the eye to see; so are also the gifts of believers diverse, distributed to them as to members, to each according to his proper measure. But Christ, who gives, receives not by measure.

(Tr. xiv. c. 8) Christ then Himself is God the true, and God hath sent Him; God hath sent God, join both together; they are One God. For John saith, Whom God hath sent, to distinguish Christ from himself. What then, was not John himself sent by God? Yes; but mark what follows, For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him. To men He giveth by measure, to His only Son He giveth not by measure. To one man is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge: one has one thing, another another; for measure implies a kind of division of gifts. But Christ did not receive by measure, though He gave by measure.

The Father then knoweth that His own Son is in Him the Same by Nature (for this I suppose the words, are One, signify, and nothing else), and acknowledgeth Him as Son not creature; Son I mean of His own Essence, and not honoured with the bare name of Sonship. For He knows that He is the Exact Image of His own Proper Self, so that He is perfectly seen in Him, and depicts in Himself Him That by Nature Ineffably beamed forth from Him, and hath in Himself the Son, is again in the Son, by reason of Sameness of Essence.

These things, o heretic, by considering, thou shalt release thyself from bitter disease, and us from trouble in argument and controversy. For He Whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God. If these words be considered simply, what will there be of marvel in the Son? For was not every one of the holy Prophets also both sent from God, and did he not declare His words? And indeed it is somewhere said to the hierophant Moses, And now come, I will send thee into Egypt, and thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord: to the most holy Jeremiah, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. What more then is there in the Son by Nature Who speaketh the words of God, because He is sent by Him? He will be declared to us again (it seems) as a Prophet, and nothing else, in respect of ministry. Therefore you will here understand hath sent, either in respect of the Incarnation and the Coming into this world with Flesh: or again you will take it in a more God-befitting and higher sense. For the Father hid not the Son in Himself, but He beamed forth of His Nature, as brightness from light, after the unspeakable and inexplicable mode of Divine Generation: which too the Only-Begotten was making known to us, in saying, I came forth from the Father, and am come. For the Son hath come forth from the Father into His Proper Being, even though He be in Him by Nature. And what I came forth there means, this again the being sent here signifies. The Word then (he says) That hath appeared and flashed forth from the Father, in that He is God of God, will use words befitting God: but the words befitting God are true words, and such as reject all stain of falsehood. He then that receiveth the testimony of the Saviour hath sealed that God is true; for He is indeed by Nature God.

For He giveth not the Spirit by measure. Promise now specially keen attention, my good friend, that with me you may wonder at the sober wisdom of the Saints. He said therefore that the Son was both sent of God, and speaketh the words of God. But he is observed as far as belongs to the simple force of the words to clothe Him with the prophetic measure, as we have just said. He: removes Him then in these words from equality with them, and through this one token gives us to understand, how great, yea, rather now how incomparable the difference. For it is impossible, saith he, that they who have received the Spirit by measure, could give It to another. For never hath saint to saint been the bestower of the Holy Ghost: but the Son giveth to all, as of His own fulness. He then giveth not by measure, nor hath He, as they, some little portion of the Spirit, and this by participation: but since He was shown to be the Giver too of It, it is manifest I suppose that He hath It wholly Essentially in Himself. He then that hath so great superiority over them, will not speak the. things of God as one of them, but being God of God, will pour forth words befitting God.

But it will no how interfere with what has been said that certain deem that by Apostolic hands the Spirit was given to some: for we will believe them to be invokers of the Spirit, rather than truly givers of It: since the blessed Moses too was not enjoined himself to take of the Spirit that was on him but God kept this too in His Power alone, saying that he must put forth the seventy, and promising to take of the Spirit that was on him, and put it upon them. For He knew that it befits God Alone to perform things God-befitting.

And rightly so. "For all others," he says, "received the power of the Spirit by measure, but to Christ Himself He gave not by measure some one or two powers, but He essentially possesses the entire Spirit." Thus, to the prophets God both gives the Spirit, that is, the power of the Spirit, and gives it by measure; but to Christ He does not give either by measure or without measure, for Christ possesses Him essentially.
Hearing that He was "sent," understand it thus: that He was sent from the Father, as a ray from the sun. Do we not say: "the sun sent forth rays" and "the sun let forth light," that is, sent it upon the earth? Yet we do not say that the ray is of a different essence or later than the sun. So also the Son was sent into the world from the noetic Sun and Father, as a radiance, as a ray, as light — and call Him whatever you wish, insofar as it is fitting.
It is not untimely to speak here, since the discussion has turned to how the Son has the Spirit and in what sense the Spirit is called the Son's. The Apostle says: "God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out: 'Abba, Father!'" (Gal. 4:6), and in another place: "if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Rom. 8:9). The Latins, poorly receiving and understanding these words, say that the Spirit proceeds from the Son. We shall say to them, first, that it is one thing to be from someone and another thing to be someone's. That the Spirit is the Spirit of the Son is not subject to doubt and is confirmed by all of Scripture; but that He is from the Son, no Scripture testifies, lest we introduce two causes of the Spirit, namely the Father and the Son.
Thus, they say: "But He breathed on the disciples and said: 'Receive the Holy Spirit'" (John 20:22). What a false understanding! If He gave the Spirit to the disciples when He breathed on them, then how did He tell them that in a few days after this you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you (Acts 1:5, 8)? Or why do we believe that the descent of the Spirit took place at Pentecost, if He gave Him on the evening of the day of His resurrection? For it was then that He breathed. But this is very laughable. Evidently, He did not give them the Holy Spirit then, but one of the gifts of the Spirit, namely the forgiveness of sins. For He immediately adds: "Whose sins you forgive" (John 20:23). And the Son possesses the Spirit essentially, as consubstantial with Him, and not as one moved to action by Him. For the prophets are moved to action. And He is called the Spirit of the Son because the Son is truth and power and wisdom, and the Holy Spirit is described by Isaiah as the Spirit of truth and power and wisdom (Isaiah 11:2). He is called the Spirit of the Son in another sense as well, namely that He is bestowed upon people through the Son. You believe that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and is bestowed upon creation through the Son, and this will be for you a rule of Orthodoxy.

Then immediately he adds a commendation of divine truth, saying, For the One whom God sends speaks the words of God. As if to say: He has given this as a sign, namely, that Christ, whose testimony he accepts, the One whom God sends speaks the words of God. Consequently, one who believes Christ believes the Father: "I speak to the world what I have heard from the Father" (below 8:26). So he expressed verbally nothing but the Father and the words of the Father, because he has been sent by the Father, and because he is the Word of the Father. Hence, he says that he even bespeaks the Father.

Or, if the statement God is true refers to Christ, we understand the distinction of persons; for since the Father is true God, and Christ is true God, it follows that the true God sent the true God, who is distinct from him in person, but not in nature.

The ability to proclaim divine truth is present in Christ in the highest degree, because he does not receive the Spirit in a partial way; and so he says, for God does not bestow the Spirit in fractions.

You might say that although God sent Christ, yet not all that Christ says is from God, but only some of the things; for even the prophets spoke at times from their own spirit, and at other times from the Spirit of God. For example, we read that the prophet Nathan (2 Sm 7:3), speaking out of his own spirit, advised David to build a temple, but that later, under the influence of the Spirit of God, he retracted this. However, the Baptist shows that such is not the case with Christ. For the prophets receive the Spirit of God only fractionally, i.e., in reference to some things, but not as to all things. Consequently, not all they say are the words of God. But Christ, who received the Spirit fully and in regards to all things, speaks the words of God as to all things.

But how can the Holy Spirit be given in fractions, since he is immense or infinite, according to the Creed of Athanasius: "Immense is the Father, immense the Son, immense the Holy Spirit"? I answer that the Holy Spirit is given in fractions, not in respect to his essence or power, according to which he is infinite, but as to his gifts, which are given fractionally: "Grace has been given to each of us according to degree" (Eph 4:7).

We should note that we can understand in two ways what is said here, namely, that God the Father did not give the Spirit to Christ in a partial way. We can understand it as applying to Christ as God, and, in another way, as applying to Christ as man. Something is given to someone in order that he may have it: and it is appropriate to Christ to have the Spirit, both as God and as man. And so he has the Holy Spirit with respect to both. As man, Christ has the Holy Spirit as Sanctifier: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me" (Is 61:1), namely, as man. But as God, he has the Holy Spirit only as manifesting himself, inasmuch as the Spirit proceeds from him: "He will give glory to me," that is, make known, "because he will have received from me," as is said below (16:14).

Therefore, both as God and as man, Christ has the Holy Spirit beyond measure. For God the Father is said to give the Holy Spirit without measure to Christ as God, because he gives to Christ the power and might to bring forth (spirandi) the Holy Spirit, who, since he is infinite, was infinitely given to him by the Father: for the Father gives it just as he himself has it, so that the Holy Spirit proceeds from him as much as from the Son. And he gave him this by an everlasting generation. Similarly, Christ as man has the Holy Spirit without measure, for the Holy Spirit is given to different men in differing degrees, because grace is given to each "by measure." But Christ as man did not receive a certain amount of grace; and so he did not receive the Holy Spirit in any limited degree.

It should be noted, however, that there are three kinds of grace in Christ: the grace of the hypostatic union, the grace of a singular person, which is habitual, and the grace of headship, which animates all the members. And Christ received each of these graces without measure.

The grace of union, which is not habitual grace, but a certain gratuitous gift, is given to Christ in order that in his human nature he be the true Son of God, not by participation, but by nature, insofar as the human nature of Christ is united to the Son of God in person. This union is called a grace because he had it without any preceding merits. Now the divine nature is infinite; hence from that union he received an infinite gift. Thus it was not by degree or measure that he received the Holy Spirit, i.e., the gift and grace of union which, as gratuitous, is attributed to the Holy Spirit.

His grace is termed habitual insofar as the soul of Christ was full of grace and wisdom: "the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (above 1:14). We might wonder if Christ did receive this grace without measure. For since such grace is a created gift, we must admit that it has a finite essence. Therefore, as far as its essence is concerned, since it is something created, this habitual grace was finite. Yet Christ is not said to have received this in a limited degree for three reasons.

First, because of the one who is receiving the grace. For it is plain that each thing's nature has a finite capacity, because even though one might receive an infinite good by knowing, loving and enjoying it, nevertheless one receives it by enjoying it in a finite way. Further, each creature has, according to its species and nature, a finite amount of capacity. But this does not make it impossible for the divine power to make another creature possessing a greater capacity; but then such a creature would not be of a nature which is specifically the same, just as when one is added to three, there is another species of number. Therefore, when some nature is not given as much of the divine goodness as its natural capacity is able to contain, then it is seen to be given to it by measure; but when its total natural capacity is filled, it is not given to it by measure, because even though there is a measure on the part of the one receiving, there is none on the part of the one giving, who is prepared to give all. Thus, if someone takes a pail to a river, he sees water present without measure, although he takes the water by measure on account of the limited dimensions of the pail. Thus, the habitual grace of Christ is indeed finite according to its essence, but it is said to be given in an infinite way and not by measure or partially, because as much was given to him as created nature was able to hold.

Secondly, Christ did not receive habitual grace in a limited way by considering the gift which is received. For every form or act, considered in its very nature, is not finite in the way in which it is made finite by the subject in which it is received. Nevertheless, there is nothing to prevent it from being finite in its essence, insofar as its existence (esse) is received in some subject. For that is infinite according to its essence which has the entire fulness of being (essendi): and this is true of God alone, who is the supreme esse. But if we consider some "spiritual" form as not existing in a subject, for example, whiteness or color, it would not be infinite in essence, because its essence would be confined to some genus or species; nevertheless it would still possess the entire fulness of that species. Thus, considering the nature of the species, it would be without limit or measure, since it would have everything that can pertain to that species. But if whiteness or color should be received into some subject, it does not always have everything that pertains necessarily and always to the nature of this form, but only when the subject has it as perfectly as it is capable of being possessed, i.e., when the way the subject possesses it is equivalent to the power of the thing possessed. Thus, Christ's habitual grace was finite according to its essence; yet it is said to have been in him without a limit or measure because he received everything that could pertain to the nature of grace. Others, however, do not receive all this, but one receives in one way, and another in another way: "There are different graces."

The third reason for saying that the habitual grace of Christ was not received in a limited way is based on its cause. For an effect is in some way present in its cause. Therefore, if someone has an infinite power to produce something, he is said to have what can be produced without measure and, in a way, infinitely. For example, if someone has a fountain which could produce an infinite amount of water, he would be said to have water in an infinite way and without measure. Thus, the soul of Christ has infinite grace and grace without measure from the fact that he has united to himself the Word, which is the infinite and unfailing source of the entire emanation of all created things.

From what has been said, it is clear that the grace of Christ which is called capital grace, insofar as he is head of the Church, is infinite in its influence. For from the fact that he possessed that from which the gifts of the Spirit could flow out without measure, he received the power to pour them out without measure, so that the grace of Christ is sufficient not merely for the salvation of some men, but for all the people of the entire world: "He is the offering for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the entire world" (1 Jn 2:2), and even for many worlds, if they existed.