themselves. In like manner
the Manicheans maintained that it was fulfilled in Manes whom they
held to be the Paraclete. Hence none of the above received the Acts
of the Apostles, where it is clearly shown that the aforesaid promise
was fulfilled in the apostles: just as Our Lord promised them a
second time (Acts 1:5): "You shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost,
not many days hence": which we read as having been fulfilled in Acts
2. However, these foolish notions are refuted by the statement (John
7:39) that "as yet the Spirit was not given, because Jesus was not
yet glorified"; from which we gather that the Holy Ghost was given as
soon as Christ was glorified in His Resurrection and Ascension.
Moreover, this puts out of court the senseless idea that the Holy
Ghost is to be expected to come at some other time.

Now the Holy Ghost taught the apostles all truth in respect of
matters necessary for salvation; those things, to wit, that we are
bound to believe and to do. But He did not teach them about all
future events: for this did not regard them according to Acts 1:7:
"It is not for you to know the times or moments which the Father hath
put in His own power."

Reply Obj. 3: The Old Law corresponded not only to the Father, but
also to the Son: because Christ was foreshadowed in the Old Law.
Hence Our Lord said (John 5:46): "If you did believe Moses, you would
perhaps believe me also; for he wrote of Me." In like manner the New
Law corresponds not only to Christ, but also to the Holy Ghost;
according to Rom. 8:2: "The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus," etc. Hence we are not to look forward to another law
corresponding to the Holy Ghost.

Reply Obj. 4: Since Christ said at the very outset of the preaching
of the Gospel: "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 4:17), it is
most absurd to say that the Gospel of Christ is not the Gospel of the
kingdom. But the preaching of the Gospel of Christ may be understood
in two ways. First, as denoting the spreading abroad of the knowledge
of Christ: and thus the Gospel was preached throughout the world even
at the time of the apostles, as Chrysostom states (Hom. lxxv in
Matth.). And in this sense the words that follow--"and then shall the
consummation come," refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, of which
He was speaking literally. Secondly, the preaching of the Gospel may
be understood as extending throughout the world and producing its
full effect, so that, to wit, the