Of God and His Creatures 321Of the Effects which the Scriptures attribute to the Holy Ghost in respect of the whole Creation

CHAPTER XX -- Of the Effects which the Scriptures attribute to the Holy Ghost in respect of the whole Creation

THE love wherewith God loves His own goodness is the cause of the creation of things (B. I, Chap. LXXXVI ); and it is laid down that the Holy Ghost proceeds as the love wherewith God loves Himself. Therefore the Holy Ghost is the principle of the creation of things; and this is signified in Ps. ciii, 30 : Send forth thy spirit and they shall be created . Again, as the Holy Ghost proceeds as love, and love is an impulsive and motor power, the motion that is from God in things is appropriately attributed to the Holy Ghost. But the first motion, or change, coming from God in things is the production of the diversity of species from matter created formless ( ex materia creata informi species diversas produxit ). This work the Scripture attributes to the Holy Ghost: The Spirit of God moved over the waters ( Gen. i, 2 ) By the the waters Augustine wishes to be understood primordial matter. The Spirit of the Lord is said to move over them, not as being in motion on Himself, but as the principle of motion. The government of creation also is fitly assigned to the Holy Ghost, as government is the moving and directing of things to their proper ends. And because the governing of subjects is an act proper to a lord, lordship too is aptly attributed to the Holy Ghost: the Spirit is Lord ( 1 Cor. iii, 17 ).

Life also particularly appears in movement. As then impulse and movement by reason of love are proper to the Holy Spirit, so too is life fitly attributed to Him, as it is said: It is the Spirit that quickeneth ( John vi, 64 : 2 Cor. iii, 6 ).