Section CXXI

But in what manner he, as prince of life, imparts life to all he explains more distinctly when, concerning the cause and end of the Spirit sent by the Father and descending¹, he says:

He promised through the prophets² to pour him forth in the last times upon servants and handmaids, that they might prophesy; whence he also descended upon the Son of God made the Son of man, becoming accustomed with him to dwell in the human race and to rest in men and dwell in the formation of God, working the will of the Father in these very ones and renewing them from oldness into the newness of Christ.

Conscious of and desiring this newness which was to exist, David³

asked this Spirit⁴ for the human race, saying: “And confirm me with a principal spirit.” … Whence the Lord also promised⁵ that he would send the Paraclete, who would fit us to God. For just as one mass cannot be made from dry wheat without moisture, nor one bread, so neither could we, being many, be made one—

—in Christ Jesus without the water which is from heaven. And just as dry earth, if it does not receive moisture, does not bear fruit, so neither would we, existing first as dry wood, ever bear the fruit of life without the voluntary rain from above.

This we all rightfully promise ourselves⁶,

since the Lord, receiving the gift from the Father, himself also gave it to those who participate from him, sending the Holy Spirit into the whole earth.

Concerning this universal mission, Irenaeus continues⁷, that which is narrated concerning Gideon is excellent:

For foreseeing this grace of the gift, that Israelite Gideon⁸, whom God chose to save the people of Israel from the power of foreigners, changed his petition and, upon the fleece of wool on which alone the dew had first been, which was a type of the people, prophesied that there would be dryness—that is, that they would no longer have the Holy Spirit from God, as Isaiah says⁹: “And I shall command the clouds not to rain upon it”—but that upon the whole earth there would be dew, which is the Spirit of God, who descended upon the Lord¹⁰: the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and pietas, the Spirit of the fear of God. He gave this same Spirit again to the Church, sending the Paraclete from heaven into the whole earth, where also the devil was cast down like lightning, as the Lord says¹¹. Wherefore the dew of God is necessary for us, that we may not be burned nor be made unfruitful, and that where we have an accuser, there also we may have a Paraclete; the Lord commending to the Holy Spirit his man who had fallen among robbers, upon whom he himself had mercy and whose wounds he bound, giving two royal denarii, that, receiving through the Spirit the image and inscription of the Father and the Son, we may make fruitful the denarius entrusted to us and number it to the Lord multiplied.

Since, therefore, the divine economy toward men has always been of this kind—

—and since God¹², who sent the Only-Begotten in the last times, never neglected the care of the human race in ages past, it is easy to conclude¹³:

That it is not one God who judges and another, the Father, who calls to salvation; nor one who bestows eternal light and another who commands those who do not have a wedding garment to be cast into the outer darkness; but one and the same Lord, the Father of our Lord, by whom the prophets also were sent, who calls the unworthy on account of his immense benignity, but inspects those who have been called to see whether they have a suitable garment, one congruent with the wedding of his Son, because nothing unsuitable, evil, or abominable pleases him. Just as the Lord said to him who had been healed¹⁴: “Behold, thou hast been made whole; now sin no more, lest something worse befall thee.” For he who is good and just and pure and immaculate will sustain nothing evil, unjust, or abominable in his bridal chamber. But this is the Father of our Lord, by whose providence all things consist and by whose command all things are administered; and he freely gives to those to whom it is fitting, but according to merit distributes most worthily against the ungrateful and those who do not perceive his benignity, as the most just rewarder.