(3) At the same time, to receive from the Father and to receive from the Son are one and the same thing.

(4) What the Holy Spirit receives from the Son is the same as what He receives from the Father: these are the goods belonging to the divine nature, which we receive through the Spirit, and He receives from the Son, who Himself received them from the Father. These blessings, which, already in the time of St. Hilary, the Greek Fathers call Divine "energies" and some Latin Fathers call Divine "actions," are most often called, since they have been handed down to us, "grace," "charisma," or "gifts" of the Spirit. In this text St. Hilary defines them, for example, as power, perfection, wisdom, but after a few chapters he presents them in detail, turning to the holy Apostle Paul (cf. 1 Cor. 12:8-12), who writes: "The gifts are different, but the Spirit is one and the same [...] and the actions are different, but God is one and the same, working all things in all (I Cor. 12, 4,6).

(5) Since the Spirit receives that which belongs to the Son, who Himself receives from the Father, this testifies to the unity of the divine nature (St. Hilary especially insists on the unity of the nature of the Father and the Son, since here he is fighting against the Arians, who deny the divinity of the Son): the blessings received by the Spirit from the Son, who received them from the Father, are those which all three Divine Persons possess together, because it belongs to their Divine nature.

6) Here St. Hilary places his thought with all certainty in the perspective of oikonomia.57 He indicates this, for example, when he writes that the Spirit was sent by the Father through the Son, or when he notes that the expression He will take from Me (John 16:14) refers to the future tense.

Other passages in De Trinitate unequivocally indicate that for St. Hilary the Holy Spirit proceeds only from the Father and is sent into the world through the Son: "The Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father, He is sent through the Son, and He receives from the Son"; "The Comforter will come, the Son will send Him from the Father, and this Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father.59

This concept is found in the prayer that is contained in the "De Trinitate": "Your Holy Spirit, proceeding from you and sent through him [your Son] (ex te profecto et per eum misso)": this "through the Son" is here clearly understood from the perspective of the economy – the mission and descent of the Spirit on the apostles and saints. A little later in the same prayer the wording is ambiguous, and the expression "through the Son" seems to be considered from a theological perspective as well as from a house-building perspective: "I also firmly believe that Thy Spirit is from Thee [the Father] through Him [the Son] (ex te per eum Spiritus tuus est), and since I do not comprehend this mystery, I preserve a deep conviction with it." The reference to the sacrament may serve as an indication in favor of a theological perspective (although the image of the sending of the Spirit through the Son into the world is incomprehensible to the human mind), but the repetition of the same formula (using the same verb "to be") in a definitely house-building perspective, where St. Hilary asks that the Spirit be given to him, is indisputably in favor of the perspective of oikonomia: "Grant that I may receive Thy Spirit, Who is from Thee through Thy Only-begotten Son (qui ex te per eum unigenitum tuum est)."62 If the expression "through the Son" were to be viewed from a theological perspective, it would not be in accordance with the thought of the Greek Fathers, who sometimes used this expression. In any case, St. Hilary does not use the expression "Filioque" or even "et Filio." For this reason, he cannot undoubtedly be reckoned among those Latin Fathers whom St. > Maximus had in mind in his letter, although the thought of the Bishop of Pictavia meets the other two criteria proposed by the Confessor, since, on the one hand, St. Hilary does not believe that the Son is the Cause of the Holy Spirit, and on the other hand, he firmly insists on the unity of the nature of the three Divine Persons. especially the Father and the Son.

St. Ambrose of Milan

In this regard, it is impossible to discover the unity of nature more than the way in which St. Ambrose explains the words of Christ from me: "All that the Son received through the unity of nature, the Holy Spirit also received from Christ through the same unity".63 But here it does not appear that this commentary would be in favor of the Latin doctrine of the Filioque, as some of the supporters of the latter claim. Moreover, in order to receive from the Son, the Spirit must already exist: the Son cannot be the cause of the hypostatic existence of the Spirit, nor even that which unites Him with the Divine nature; the connection with this nature is presupposed in view of hypostatic existence. In this case, there is absolutely nothing to indicate that what the Spirit takes from the Son through the unity of natures is His hypostatic existence, or even His divine nature. But here, as we have already seen in St. Hilary, we are talking about the goods that belong to the general Divine nature, about the energies or actions that are transmitted from the Father through the Son to the Holy Spirit.

Here is another text by St. Ambrose, which is often cited in favor of the Latin doctrine of the Filioque: "Know now that just as the Father is the Source of life, so the Son is also presented as the Source of life, as most theologians have pointed out. For it is written: "From Thee, Almighty Father, Thy Son is the Fountain of Life," that is, the source of the Holy Spirit; for the Spirit is life, according to the word of the Lord: "The words which I speak to you are spirit and life" (John 6:63), for where the Spirit is, there is also life, and where there is life, there is also the Spirit."65

From St. Ambrose's assertion that the Son is the Source of the life of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible to conclude that "He is also the Source (together with the Father) of His being",66 that the Son Himself is "the pre-eternal Source of the Spirit",67 and that this refers to "the pre-eternal origin of the Spirit Himself",68 especially since "the holy teacher could not have expressed more openly the procession of the Spirit from the Son".69 St. Ambrose in this passage of his treatise asserts that "just as the Father is the source of life [...], the source of life is the Son," emphasizing here the new commonality of the nature of the Father and the Son, because life is a good that belongs to the common Divine nature, like eternity or goodness. Life is also related to divine grace, or, as some Greek Fathers maintained, to divine energy.70 St. Ambrose in this passage clearly implies the communication of this energy (which cannot be understood as a source of being or a principle of existence) from the Son (who received it from the Father) to the Holy Spirit.71 Note that in another place he speaks of grace as here he speaks of life.72 It is difficult to suppose that, according to the bishop of Milan, this communication takes place divinely and pre-eternally; and in this context it would be fair to say that the Spirit, as well as grace and energy, proceeds from the Father and from the Son. The context of this passage is clearly of a house-building nature, since St. Ambrose has in mind the communication of this grace to people. The quotation from St. John the Evangelist, which appears right there, points to this in the same way as it indicates that it is not the Very Person of the Holy Spirit, which St. Ambrose had in mind (the hypostasis of the Holy Spirit cannot be identified with either life or spirit), but something that belongs to Him: grace or energy.

The following text clearly confirms this interpretation:

"When we see in this the Source of the Father or the Son, we understand in any case that it is not the source of water from below, which is creation, but the water of divine grace, that is, of the Holy Spirit (divmae illius gratiae, hoc est, Spiritus Sancti), because He is living water."73