For the holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and remove from thoughts that are without understanding, and will not abide when unrighteousness cometh in.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Nor can it be said that those who mingle with Christ"s sheep in a merely physical and hypocritical way are either in the church or belong to the communion of the Spirit. For the Holy Spirit, the master of discipline, hates those who are hypocritical. That is why all those baptized in schismatic or heretical congregations"they might better be called segregations"have not been regenerated by the Spirit. They are similar, so to speak, to Ishmael, who was born from Abraham according to the flesh, and not like Isaac who was born according to the Spirit in virtue of the promise. - "Sermon 71.19.32"
The city from which the inhabitants went out, pleading with the Lord to leave them, represents the synagogue, which did not want to accept the Lord and Savior of the human race, even after it had seen his divine miracles. Therefore he returned to his own city"rejected by the synagogue, he has come to his church; it is this latter that in a true and proper sense merits the name of the city of Christ. Thus one understands why the Gadarenes pleaded with the Lord to leave their town. We must, however, be attentive, that none of us find ourselves in a similar situation; I am alluding to the danger that someone, because of an unbelieving heart, would impel the Lord and Savior of the world to leave his heart, because it is written that "the Holy Spirit, the teacher of discipline, flees from one who is false; he will not dwell in a body enslaved to sin." - "Tractate on Matthew 43.7"
The first man, formed of mud and earth, had in his power the choice between good and evil and had under his control whether he inclined to the one or the other. He was snared by a grave deception and, fallen into disobedience, returned to the mother earth from which he was born; subject to corruption and death, he transmitted this punishment to all his descendents. Evil increased and multiplied among us, and our hearts fell ever lower; sin reigned, and thus, finally, human nature was deprived of the Holy Spirit that had lived in it. "The Holy Spirit of instruction flees from deceit," as it is written, "and he does not dwell in a body enslaved to sin." Because, therefore, the first Adam did not preserve the grace given to him by God, God the Father sent us the second Adam from heaven. He sent us his own Son, made in our likeness, who did not know change or alteration and did not know sin, so that, just as by the disobedience of the first we merited divine wrath, so by the obedience of t...
Let no one hold that the three persons are separable, since he would not be able to find any one of the persons existing or acting before another or after another or without another. Just as by nature there can be no separability of action, in the same way there remains, by nature, an immutable unity of the will. We will now consider in what way both angels and human beings have been separated from God, in order to enable us to grasp without a shadow of doubt that the Trinity is inseparable. For holy Scripture says, in fact, that "perverse thoughts separate people from God," and that "wisdom does not enter into a malignant spirit, nor does it dwell in a body given over to sin" and that "the Holy Spirit of discipline flees from deceit and distances himself from thoughts lacking in reason." In effect, Isaiah also proves that iniquities dig a trench between God and humanity. The holy Trinity, therefore, is the same faithful God in whom no wickedness can exist: "The Son of God came to take...
The Spirit goes elsewhere when his grace distances itself from the proud and from those who are insincere. Thus it is written, "The Holy Spirit of instruction flees deceit." Therefore Christ himself says in the Gospel, "The Spirit blows where he wills, and you hear his voice, but you do not know where he comes from or where he goes." The Spirit comes and goes, because he abandons the reprobate, taking to himself the elect. And because God"s judgment is omnipotent and inscrutable, human beings do not know where they come from or where they go. Indeed, it is not possible to know whether someone will persevere to the end in the grace he has received. It is said therefore that the Spirit leaves one who has fallen and goes to one who will persevere, because, in this earthly life, he abandons some and takes others to himself, whom he does not abandon. - "Six Books on 1 Kings 5.460"
