Whether this doctrine, "the distinction of persons," was sufficiently proposed in the Old Law so as to make it belong to the common faith of Israel ?—this is not tenable; notwithstanding, it is none the less certain that the doctrine of the distinction of persons is found in the Old Law now more clearly expressed and again more obscurely foreshadowed. A wholesale denial of this is not permissible to any one. (Franz De Deo Trino. Page 97.) The New Law demands such a reading. Catholic feeling and the full roster of Fathers, sustain this contention. There are some Fathers who think that even the very "number" of persons was foreshadowed in the Old Law, in the vision of Isaias, who heard the cherubim chanting, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts." St. Ambrose expressed himself to this effect over the vision: "What business had he, with this triple repetition of designated holiness? If there is a trinal repetition, why is there but one praise? If there is but one praise, why is the repetition threefold? Why else is the repetition trinal, except Father and Son and Holy Ghost are, in holiness, one? He did not say it once only, lest he should omit the Son, nor twice merely, lest he should not reckon the Spirit, nor four times lest he should bring in creatures. To show, moreover, that there is one Godhead in the Trinity, as soon as he said three times, 'Holy, holy, holy,' he significantly added, "Lord God of Sabaoth." Holy therefore is the Father, holy the Son, and holy is the Spirit of God. Adorable is the Trinity, not adoring. It is worthy of praise, but it praiseth not." (i, 2 de fid. c, 12, num. 107.) and mighty truth, but, before the preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, this triple mystery of Jehovah was delivered secretly, under terms more or less hidden. The Trinity of persons, in only one God, was taught clearly, publicly, as even the Rabbis admit, only at the epoch of the advent of the Messiah, our Just One, an epoch when the name of Jehovah, who announced that this August Mystery, as well as the Incarnation of the Lord, was to cease to be ineffable, in conformity with Zachary's prophecy." (Drach.)
A distinguished Jewish Rabbi convert has said: "The dogma of the Blessed Trinity antedated the promulgation of the Gospel, and the ancient synagogues from the first patriarch of the people of God possessed the deposit of this high St. Gregory has said: "God the Father was announced openly under the ancient alliance and the Son of God with less eclat. The new alliance has manifested the Son and indicated for the first time, under a cloudy sky, the divinity of the Holy Ghost. To-day the Spirit is at work in our midst and furnishes us with evident testimonies of His existence. It had not been without danger to publicly announce the divinity of the Son of God unto men, when as yet they did not confess the divinity of God the Father; nor to impose, as a surcease of faith, belief in the Holy Ghost, so long as the divinity of the Son was not yet admitted. The light of the Trinity was to rise upon the world, feeble, at first, and, then, with a brilliancy ever increasing in proportion to the capacity of the human mind." (Orat. xxxi, 26.)
The divine diplomacy, so to speak, unveiled in these words shows a God-wise in other truths progressively taught in the Church. There is no tyranny visible, but, on the contrary, a tender wooing of, and a profoundly merciful consideration for, the poor human mind. It took eons of preparation and prophetic training for the Incarnation, and yet when, at last, the realization came, many went their way and would have none of it,—a sad lesson of human history and a fearsome omen on the obduracy of the human heart.
"Back in the beginning, when the earth was void and empty, and darkness sat upon the face of the deep, the Spirit of God moved over the waters." (Gen. i, 2) St. Jerome snatches up this keynote. "The Spirit of the Lord moved over the waters," says the saint, or, as the Hebrew texts have it, "rested upon, and warmed the waters, after the manner,precisely, of the hen that animates the egg with her warmth." We conclude from this that mention is here made, not of the Spirit of the word, as some seem to confess, but, rather, of the Holy Spirit, Who, in the same manner, is called the vivifier of all things from the beginning. (In tradit. i, Gen.)
In the Old Testament, the Holy Ghost was called, "the Spirit of the Mouth of God, Creator, Bestower of Chrisms, Illuminator of the Prophets, the Promise of the Holy Ghost in more Abundant Gifts, the Initiator of the Prospective Messiah." "His Spirit hath adorned the heavens," says Job. (xxvi, 13.) "Thou shalt send forth thy spirit and they shall be created," says David. (Ps. ciii, 30.) And in another place, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." (Ps. 1, 13.) "O that all the people might prophesy and that the Lord would give them His Spirit." (Num. xi, 29)—"Words which the Lord of Hosts, sent in His Spirit by the hand of His former prophet." (Zach. vii, 12.)
"And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding—he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge according to the sight of his eyes." (Is.>xi, 2, 3.) "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me." (Is. li, i.)
If a distinct person is not hermeneutically proven by these texts of the Old Law, the appeal of the New Law to the Old,—"These things, said Isaias when he saw His glory and spoke of Him;" "Well did the Holy Ghost speak to our Fathers, by Isaias the prophet;" (Acts xxviii, 25, John xii, 41)—in proof of the revelation of Three Divine Persons, shows that the Holy Ghost, in the Old Law, was listed in the personnel of the deity. This is so to such a degree that the doctrine of the New Testament, on this point, is not to be reputed as a new revelation of an unspoken truth, but, the farther unveiling of an antecedent revelation and a more distinct determination thereof. We see it in more clear lines, as at noon-tide, where, of old, evasive dawn light enveloped it.
