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St. Augustine
Enchiridion
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CHAPTER XV - The Holy Spirit (56) and the Church (57-60)


56. Now, when we have spoken of Jesus Christ, the only Son of God our Lord, in the brevity
befitting our confession of faith, we go on to affirm that we believe also in the Holy Spirit, as
completing the Trinity which is God; and after that we call to mind our faith "in holy Church." By
this we are given to
understand that the rational creation belonging to the free Jerusalem ought to be mentioned in a
subordinate order to the Creator, that is, the supreme Trinity. For, of course, all that has been
said about the man Christ Jesus refers to the unity of the Person of the Only Begotten.
Thus, the right order of the Creed demanded
110 that the Church be made subordinate to the
Trinity, as a house is
subordinate to him who dwells in it, the temple to God, and the city to its founder. By the
Church here we are to understand the whole Church, not just the part that journeys here on earth
from rising of the sun to its setting, praising the name of the Lord
111 and singing a new song
of deliverance from its old captivity, but also that part which, in heaven, has always, from
creation, held fast to God, and which never experienced the evils of a fall. This part, composed
of the holy angels, remains in blessedness, and it gives help, even as it ought, to the other
part still on pilgrimage. For both parts together will make one eternal consort, as even now they
are one in the bond of love - the whole instituted for the proper worship of the one God.
112
Wherefore, neither the whole Church nor any part of it wishes to be worshiped as God nor to be
God to anyone belonging to the temple of God - the temple that is being built up of "the gods"
whom the uncreated God created.
113 Consequently, if the Holy Spirit were creature and not
Creator, he would obviously be a rational creature, for this is the highest of the levels of
creation. But in this case he would not be set in the rule of faith _before_ the Church, since he
would then belong _to_ the Church, in that part of it which is in heaven. He would not have
a temple, for he himself would be a temple. Yet, in fact, he hath a temple of which the apostle
speaks, "Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you
have from God?"
114 In another place, he says of this body, "Know you not that your bodies
are members of Christ?"
115 How, then, is he not God who has a temple? Or how can he be
less than Christ whose members are his temple? It is not that he has one temple and God
another temple, since the same apostle says: "Know you not that you are the temple of God," and
then, as if to prove his point, added, "and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" God
therefore dwelleth in his temple, not the Holy Spirit only, but also Father and Son, who saith of
his body - in which he standeth as Head of the Church on earth "that in all things he may be
pre-eminent"
116 - "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again."
117
Therefore, the temple of God - that is, of the supreme Trinity as a whole - is holy Church, the
Universal Church in heaven and on the earth.

57. But what can we affirm about that part of the Church in heaven, save that in it no evil is
to be found, nor any apostates, nor will there be again, since that time when "God did not spare
the sinning angels" - as the apostle Peter writes - "but casting them out, he delivered them into
the prisons of darkness in hell, to be reserved for the sentence in the Day of Judgment"
118?

58. Still, how is life ordered in that most blessed and supernal society? What differences are
there in rank among the angels, so that while all are called by the general title "angels" - as we
read in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "But to which of the angels said he at any time, 'Sit at my
right hand'?"
119; this expression clearly signifies that all are angels without exception - yet
there are archangels there as well? Again, should these archangels be called "powers" [virtutes],
so that the verse, "Praise him all his angels; praise him, all his powers,"
120 would mean the
same thing as, "Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his archangels"? Or, what distinctions
are implied by the four designations by which the apostle seems to encompass the entire
heavenly society, "Be they thrones or dominions,
principalities, or powers"
121? Let them answer these questions who can, if they can indeed
prove their answers. For myself, I confess to ignorance of such matters. I am not even certain
about another question: whether the sun and moon and all the stars belong to that same heavenly
society - although they seem to be nothing more than luminous bodies, with neither perception
nor understanding.

59. Furthermore, who can explain the kind of bodies in which the angels appeared to men, so
that they were not only visible, but tangible as well? And, again, how do they, not by impact of
physical stimulus but by spiritual force, bring certain visions, not to the physical eyes but to the
spiritual eyes of the mind, or speak something, not to the ears, as from outside us, but actually
from within the human soul, since they are present within it too? For, as it is written in the book
of the Prophets: "And the angel that spoke in me, said to me . . ."
122 He does not say, "Spoke
_to_ me" but "Spoke _in_ me." How do they appear to men in sleep, and communicate through
dreams, as we read in the Gospel: "Behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep,
saying..."
123? By these various modes of presentation, the angels seem to indicate that they do
not have tangible bodies. Yet this raises a very difficult question: How, then, did the patriarchs
wash the angels' feet?
124 How, also, did Jacob wrestle with the angel in such a tangible
fashion?
125
To ask such questions as these, and to guess at the answers as one can, is not a useless
exercise in speculation, so long as the discussion is moderate and one avoids the mistake of those
who think they know what they do not know.





110 Reading the classical Latin form poscebat (as in Scheel and PL) for the late form poxebat (as in Riviere and many old MSS.).



111 Cf. Ps. 113:3.



112 Here reading unum deum (with Riviere and PL) against deum (in Scheel).



113 A hyperbolic expression referring to "the saints." Augustine's Scriptural backing for such an unusual phrase is Ps. 82:6 and John 10:34f. But note the firm distinction between ex diis quos facit and non factus Deus.



114 1 Cor. 6:19.



115 1 Cor. 6:15.



116 Col. 1:18.



117 John 2:19.



118 2 Peter 2:4 (Old Latin).



119 Heb. 1:13.



120 Ps. 148:2 (LXX).



121 Col. 1:16.



122 Zech. 1:9.



123 Matt. 1:20.



124 Gen. 18:4; 19:2.



125 Gen. 32:24.





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