By Henry Aloysius Barry
We do not expatiate at greater length on the divinity of the Holy Ghost as insinuating that our minds are still haunted by any shadow of doubt on the matter in hand, but, rather to have impressed upon us by Holy Scripture, and tradition, the co-prominence of the August Third Person with the Father and Son as involving, in its persistent appeal, the larger necessity, on our part, of imbuing our daily lives with the thyme-scented aroma of His breath.
The Socinians and Deists are at pains to inform us that the divinity of the Holy Ghost was unknown to the dogmatic thought of the Church previous to the Council of Constantinople, A. D., 381. As a matter of fact, however, the Council of Nice, sitting in the year 325, had put forward this doctrine, in sufficiently explicit and luminous terms, in its symbol—"We believe in the one God, Father Almighty—and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and we believe also in the Holy Ghost." The Three Persons are clearly set forth without difference and on a par with each other. Proofs positive on the point revert as far back as Christianity itself. In the second century, the church of Smyrna—Ep. n. 14.—wrote to the Philadelphians, to the effect that St. Polycarp, when on the verge of martyrdom, gave glory to God the Father, to Jesus Christ the Son and to the Holy Ghost. St. Justin in his first apologia (n. 6) writes down: "We honor and adore the true God, the Father, the Son and the prophetic Spirit." Lucian, author of the dialogue Philopartris, brings in a christian in the act of inviting a catechumen to swear by the Most High God, by the Son of the Father, by the Spirit which proceedeth from Them, Who make the One in Three and the Three in One —"Lo!" he adds, "the true God!" St. Iranaeus entertained this belief as his commentators show, (Disert. iii, Art. 5.) Athenagoras goes on in the same strain. (Legat. Pro Christ, n. 12, 24.) St. Theophilius of Antioch— (lib. ii, ad.) Autolyic n. 9, assures us that the prophets were inspired by the Holy Ghost, that is to say, by God. In the third century St. Clement of Alexandria brought his book on the pedagogies to a close, with a doxology addressed to the three divine Persons. Tertullian refuted the heretics for accusing the christians of adoring three gods. He assures them that the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity are but One God, (Qontra Praxeas C, ii, iii, xiii.) Origen contributes his testimony in the same doctrinal direction, (Ep. ad. Rom. iv, 9; vii, viii, 5, etc.)
In the fourth century, St. Basil sets out to show the divinity of the Holy Ghost from the testimony of those who had lived in the three preceding centuries. He cites a passage from St. Clement of Rome, disciple of the apostle at first hand; he insists that the doxology was in vogue throughout the length and breadth of the Church and disowns being aware of its origin. This formula maintains the perfect equality between the Three divine Persons by rendering an equal honor to the Three. Other religious customs go to confirm this credence in the divinity of the Holy Ghost. One might choose as a specimen of these customs the triple immersion at baptism, and, as we elsewhere observed, the very formula itself of baptism.
We have, furthermore, the Kyrie Eleison thrice repeated for each person, and, still again, the Trisagion of the Liturgy.
The Arians strove energetically, though vainly, to suppress this Trisagion. It had come down from the apostles because we find it. in Apocalypse, eighth chapter, that bewitches the sight with the picture of the Christian Liturgy under the figure of eternal glory. This is how the most ancient religious usages are martialled forward to proclaim from the housetops the venerable antiquities of our christian dogma and to do duty as commentaries on the the Holy Scriptures. (Bergier Die. Theo. Dog. Art Sanct. Sp.)
CHAPTER IX.
DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST FURTHER CONSIDERED.
We do not expatiate at greater length on the divinity of the Holy Ghost as insinuating that our minds are still haunted by any shadow of doubt on the matter in hand, but, rather to have impressed upon us by Holy Scripture, and tradition, the co-prominence of the August Third Person with the Father and Son as involving, in its persistent appeal, the larger necessity, on our part, of imbuing our daily lives with the thyme-scented aroma of His breath.
The Socinians and Deists are at pains to inform us that the divinity of the Holy Ghost was unknown to the dogmatic thought of the Church previous to the Council of Constantinople, A. D., 381. As a matter of fact, however, the Council of Nice, sitting in the year 325, had put forward this doctrine, in sufficiently explicit and luminous terms, in its symbol—"We believe in the one God, Father Almighty—and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and we believe also in the Holy Ghost." The Three Persons are clearly set forth without difference and on a par with each other. Proofs positive on the point revert as far back as Christianity itself. In the second century, the church of Smyrna—Ep. n. 14.—wrote to the Philadelphians, to the effect that St. Polycarp, when on the verge of martyrdom, gave glory to God the Father, to Jesus Christ the Son and to the Holy Ghost. St. Justin in his first apologia (n. 6) writes down: "We honor and adore the true God, the Father, the Son and the prophetic Spirit." Lucian, author of the dialogue Philopartris, brings in a christian in the act of inviting a catechumen to swear by the Most High God, by the Son of the Father, by the Spirit which proceedeth from Them, Who make the One in Three and the Three in One —"Lo!" he adds, "the true God!" St. Iranaeus entertained this belief as his commentators show, (Disert. iii, Art. 5.) Athenagoras goes on in the same strain. (Legat. Pro Christ, n. 12, 24.) St. Theophilius of Antioch— (lib. ii, ad.) Autolyic n. 9, assures us that the prophets were inspired by the Holy Ghost, that is to say, by God. In the third century St. Clement of Alexandria brought his book on the pedagogies to a close, with a doxology addressed to the three divine Persons. Tertullian refuted the heretics for accusing the christians of adoring three gods. He assures them that the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity are but One God, (Qontra Praxeas C, ii, iii, xiii.) Origen contributes his testimony in the same doctrinal direction, (Ep. ad. Rom. iv, 9; vii, viii, 5, etc.)
In the fourth century, St. Basil sets out to show the divinity of the Holy Ghost from the testimony of those who had lived in the three preceding centuries. He cites a passage from St. Clement of Rome, disciple of the apostle at first hand; he insists that the doxology was in vogue throughout the length and breadth of the Church and disowns being aware of its origin. This formula maintains the perfect equality between the Three divine Persons by rendering an equal honor to the Three. Other religious customs go to confirm this credence in the divinity of the Holy Ghost. One might choose as a specimen of these customs the triple immersion at baptism, and, as we elsewhere observed, the very formula itself of baptism.
We have, furthermore, the Kyrie Eleison thrice repeated for each person, and, still again, the Trisagion of the Liturgy.
The Arians strove energetically, though vainly, to suppress this Trisagion. It had come down from the apostles because we find it. in Apocalypse, eighth chapter, that bewitches the sight with the picture of the Christian Liturgy under the figure of eternal glory. This is how the most ancient religious usages are martialled forward to proclaim from the housetops the venerable antiquities of our christian dogma and to do duty as commentaries on the the Holy Scriptures. (Bergier Die. Theo. Dog. Art Sanct. Sp.)
