Annotation LVII

”Whoever shall speak a word against the Holy Spirit,” etc. — Matthew 12:32

On the sin against the Holy Spirit.

Thomas Cajetan, in the commentaries on this passage, has thus: “What is signified by ‘the Holy Spirit’ is not clear; yet the subject matter suggests that by the name ‘Holy Spirit’ is signified God — according to that whereby he exercises the office of the Holy Spirit, that is, whereby he makes the souls of men spiritual and holy. So that to speak a word

against the Holy Spirit is by words to assail God who sanctifies men. For this is directly and by intention to speak against the Holy Spirit, inasmuch as ‘Holy Spirit’ is an essential name of God — not regarding, as far as this text is concerned, [the name] insofar as it is proper to the third person in the Trinity.” Ambrose [Catharinus], bishop of Compsa, in the fourth book of [his] Annotations, refutes Cajetan, because he denied that this passage pertains to the person of the Holy Spirit.