The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 14.

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

Michaelerkirche, Wien/Vienna detail of the main altar

The church established by our Lord is not only one by constitution as He was pleased to form it; but it is one by necessity, and He could have formed it in no other way. Unity is an essential of any. organisation, and without it there is not a semblance of order. If the divine founder of the church did not make it one, how did He make it ?

He could not make it two or three, for this is a contradiction in terms. It is, in fact, making one two; and God cannot do this, since He cannot contradict Himself. He could have made three or a thousand different societies, but they would have borne different characteristics, and would have been constituted for different ends. A church, in the true meaning of the term, is a body of visible men authorised to represent Christ upon earth and to teach His Gospel. There can be but one such church, as there cannot be more than one God. So the unity of the church is a necessity in the plans of redemption. Disunion destroys, misleads, and ruins all. If that disunion were the work of God, which is impossible, He would be responsible for it. He is essentially one, and all His operations bear the likeness of this unity, especially His greatest work after the Incarnation—"the church, which is His body and the fullness of Him, who is filled all in all." eph i.23

The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 13.

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

II.

A visible church was established by our Lord, and it is a unity by constitution and by necessity.
What our intelligence asks as a just manifestation of divine mercy towards our fallen race, God has supplied beyond all our desires.

1. It is a matter of fact that our Lord Jesus Christ came upon earth and proved His divine mission by abundant miracles. It is also a fact that He founded and organized a church of visible men with all the necessary provisions for its perpetuity. He called to Himself disciples, whom He taught; and of them He chose twelve, whom he named apostles (St Luke vi. 12). The apostles were sent with divine authority to teach the world. "As My Father hath sent me, even so do I send you." (St John xx. 21.)

The Jewish Church was confessedly founded by God as a preparation for the Christian organization. It was a visible body, with power to represent the majesty of the divine Lawgiver on earth. So the church established by Christ is an external organization, but endowed with higher life and greater gifts. The Acts of the Apostles are a plain narrative of the growth of this church in different lands. We are not asked to prove a fact universally received, and one which has everywhere left ineffaceable marks upon society. It is incontestable that Jesus Christ founded a church to bear His name and minister His grace. That this church is visible, and must be so, is evident from the fact that it is composed of visible men and bears a mission to a visible world. An invisible church can only be for invisible men, with whom we have not now to do.

2. The church established by our Lord is a unity by constitution and by necessity.
One founder made it one. It is one in organization, with one head. The apostles were subordinated to one as a type and centre of unity. "Simon, son of John, feed my lambs, feed my sheep." (St. John xxi. 15,17) " Thou art Peter, and on this rock will I build my church." (St. Matt. xvi. 18.) The body which has one head is necessarily one, since a body with many heads would be a monstrous contradiction. So argues St. Paul: " There is one body and one Spirit : as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all." The unity of God is perfect. But the apostle tells us that the unity of the church is of the same nature. There can no more be two bodies than there can be two Gods. There cannot be two creeds, nor two baptisms, nor two Holy Spirits. Neither can there be two churches of Christ. So says St. Cyprian: "There is one God and one Christ, and His church is one, and the faith one, and the people one, joined into the solid unity of one body. Unity cannot be sundered, nor the one body be separated by the dissolution of its structure." ( St. Cyprian, De Unitate).

The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 12.

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

While this is the voice of revelation, it is also in accordance with reason, which can see neither justice nor consistency in a salvation which regards only the immaterial and invisible part of man. Man would be at the same time destroyed by the theory of redemption which takes up the soul and leaves the body to perish. God could not so contradict Himself, writing His image in the creature made by the holy Trinity to rule over the visible earth, and then abandoning, in the richer work of grace, the body, which is the symbol of superiority in the visible creation. Again, our Lord took a visible body in all things like unto ours, sin only-excepted. Thus is He, the second Adam, as visible as the first; and hence, by necessary consequence, the bodies of the just are quickened with His life. Through the humanity He shows Himself to us ; by the humanity He touches us. "The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in Him."

The action of redemption upon the visible bodies of men requires logically external signs of grace; and such external signs require an outward organization and a tangible, corporate existence of the redeemed. We cannot conceive of such exterior signs of grace without divine authority; and divine authority exacts order as its first essential. Such signs of spiritual life are sacraments conveying under visible forms an inward power. They demand, and by the just requirements of logic, one visible body on earth as the sacrament and sign of unity with God, the invisible Worker. And, to demonstrate that our reasoning is just, as a matter of fact, where such a visible organization is denied, sacraments are soon rejected; and where sacraments are rejected the redemption of the body is contradicted. And soon, by the necessity of the argument, men scoff at a visible Redeemer and fall into blank materialism. There is nothing more unreasonable than materialism; but to it inevitably come the deniers of revelation; and this denial of truth revealed is the legitimate consequence of the rejection of any of its essential verities. Through the visible church God meets us in redemption. Here He touches us, and here all is in harmony. Deny the church, and the chain is broken which binds man to his Maker. In sin and blindness, he cannot stand alone. He falls not only from the pinnacle of grace, but even from the height of natural reason. "The fool hath said in his heart: There is no God." 

The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 11.

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

I.

From our knowledge of God and ourselves reason demands a visible body, in which, with visible signs, the wonders of redemption shall be wrought.

1. The race of man is a visible race, and must be treated as such in all the operations of God. We are not pure spirits, and can never be considered as purely spiritual. Our bodies, which are material and visible, are an integral part of our nature. They are concerned in our sin, and they must in like manner be concerned in our redemption. The operations of the soul are in and through the senses, which are the means of our communication with the external world.
The human race fell in Adam, its father, and visibly was exiled from Eden, and in its corporate life passed into the shadow of death away from God. "By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin, death: and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned." The action of life among those dead in the transgression of one father must be in accordance with the nature of their death. As a visible race they died; as a visible race they must be raised from that death. "By the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners ; so also by the obedience of one many shall be made just," The visibility of the redeemed corresponds to that of the fallen. The first Adam and his children are fallen in the unity of race. The second Adam, with His children, are the living race with the same unity, visibility, and corporate life.

2. If the redeemed were invisible to the eyes of men, there would be no redemption of the body, and therefore no redemption of man. Whatever may happen to the soul can never be made known to us except through the body. If the soul could be restored to God without any change passing upon the body, God alone would know it, and the man could not be saved. Such a redemption is impossible, and for manifest reasons.

On such a supposition the soul addressed by grace "will pass its trial and come to its reward. In the trial the body has its share. It can have none in the reward. Then the body must perish, as the soul redeemed cannot peacefully inform it in eternity. This contradicts the voice of reason, since it destroys in the future life the integrity of man. The soul is an immortal spirit. Man is essentially composed of a soul and a body. It contradicts also the plain words of revelation, which teaches us that the body shall rise in the latter day from the grave, and that " this mortal shall put on immortality."

In the body man has sinned, and in the body he ought to suffer. " Sin reigned in the mortal body of the sinner, who has yielded his members as instruments of iniquity unto sin." So "the hands and feet of the lost are to go into hell, into unquenchable fire." In like manner they are to have part in the resurrection by reason of their share in redemption. "If the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He shall quicken your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit that dwelleth in you." "Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own ? For you are bought with a price. Glorify and bear God in your body."

The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 10.

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

Such is the plan of infinite wisdom, in perfect harmony with the needs of our race and with the nature of God. Indeed, so far as we are able to see, we can conceive of no other plan which would restore order in the intelligent creation, and of many wandering and jarring wills make a unity in one God, acceptable to Him because really in Him.

Our subject will become more clear by considering the following propositions in their.order and connection:

I. From our knowledge of God and our own needs, reason demands a visible body of the redeemed, in which the new creation shall be wrought.

II. Our Lord Himself established a visible church, which is a unity, by its constitution and, indeed, by necessity.

III. Into this visible body the Holy Spirit entered, thus taking possession of it and giving it a divine character.

IV. He is the principle of its life, and therefore of its unity, since disunion contradicts life, and is death.

V. The sphere of sanctifying grace is in the church, which is the temple of the Holy Ghost.
Depending upon the divine Spirit for our knowledge of the way of salvation, and of the dispensation of which He is the ruler, let us at this time humble ourselves before Him, and ask for light to see, and grace to appreciate the beauties of the new creation as they unfold themselves to true and obedient hearts.

The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 9.

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

Two important lessons are to be learned from this brief view of the person and work of the divine Spirit.

The more we know of the greatness of God in Himself, the more wonderful seems His condescension. What are we that the Three Persons of the Godhead should so occupy themselves with our salvation? The creature is low enough by nature in comparison with his Creator. What is he, then, before the eyes of the infinite Majesty, when by sin he has degraded his nature and made it impure; when the gifts of Providence have been trailed in the mire of corruption? If the unfallen angels are not clean in the sight of the AU-Holy, what is man, fallen and corrupted by transgression? Yet upon him seems to stoop the whole mercy of the Creator. Passing by fallen angels for whom no redemption was offered, the outer life of the eternal Three seems to be spent upon our recovery. The Father plans in His great heart the scheme of salvation ; the Son comes joyfully to the Virgin's womb and the cross; and the Holy Spirit refuses not to move with pitying love and unwonted energy upon the waste, where a greater than primeval darkness rests upon the face of the deep. Let us value our souls by their price in the eyes of God, by the labors of the Three infinite Persons. What a loss will it be if we, made by the will of the Father, bought by the Blood of the Son, and sanctified by the power of the Holy Ghost, fail to realize our dignity, and fall eternally from the arms of the Trinity into the rayless darkness where the light of grace can never be rekindled! The divine Mind alone can estimate our value and measure our ruin.

And, lastly, while we rejoice in the presence and comfort of the Paraclete, and know that He is our all-abiding strength, how should we fear before Him and tremble lest we . grieve Him ! He is a consuming fire, to burn away our dross and to lighten our darkness with the searching beams of divinity. He is ours in thought and will, in word and deed, according to our wish. As much as we ask He will give, and even beyond all our hopes he will respond to our desires. We can drink of purity itself; bathe at our will in the precious Blood of Christ; and even before the days of exile are ended taste of the fruit of the tree of life. Yet do we realize that it is God who is within us, that we are His temples, that it is He who speaks to us in times of trial, sorrow, or joy? How happy are we to bear our Paraclete within us, and how sacred is the heart where He dwells! Lifted up above the storms of earth, far from its confusing strife, is the home where the Spirit of the Father and the Son abides! This is the Love of the Holy Trinity, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God dwelleth in Him. We cannot dwell in love unless our souls, in will and affection, are one with God, for God is one. Let us cry earnestly to the quickening Spirit by whose life we live. He will help us to realize our consecration to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He will enlighten our understanding, chase away sin and sorrow from our memory, and give supernal vigor to our will. By God we shall take hold of God, and by divine power ascend where our weakness shall be made strength. On the wings of the Spirit we are borne to the bosom of the Son, and in His human arms we are presented to the Father. God bears us to God. "The Spirit helpeth our infirmity ; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit Himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what the Spirit desireth, because He asketh for the saints according to God. And we know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as according to His purpose are called to be saints."

"Careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. One body and one Spirit: as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all."— Ephesians iv. 8-6.

Order is the necessary mark of all the works of God. To this order unity-is essential. In things created this unity appears, as far as is possible to finite existences. There cannot be the supreme oneness of God, but there is the unity of design, of end and operation. We cannot conceive of the divine Being working in confusion, which would be disorder and seeming contradiction. In things inanimate there is perfect harmony throughout the whole realm of creation. If there be disorder among intelligent beings it is owing to the perversity of their wills, which have the power to resist the plan of God and rebel against Him. The Deity has no share in this work of disunion from Himself. The separation from unity is essential disorder.

If, then, order and unity mark the works of the first creation, when from nothing the universe sprang into being; much more, and in a truer sense, shall be seen these signs of the divine action in the new creation, which is a work of a higher nature and in a plane nearer to the Deity itself. There is no need to develop here the argument which from the unity of the visible creation demonstrates the unity of the great First Cause. We pass to the necessary conclusion that the essential attributes of the Deity must be more manifest in the redemption. By sin the intelligent race of man fell from order, and by the interposition of God, who is one, they mnst by unity be restored to unity. This human erring wills may be brought brought back to harmony with the one all-perfect will of the Creator. If God is to work a salvation for the children of Adam, He must act in accordance with His nature. The subject of this lecture concerns, then, the sphere of the divine operation in redemption, and consequently the work of the Holy Ghost upon earth. That work is in a visible body, of which the eternal Spirit becomes the living principle, and through which He operates to the sanctification of men. 

The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 8.

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

The Holy Trinity hath another work, undertaken of His free mercy and to show the riches of His grace. When our race fell from God by the prevarication of its will, and in our father, Adam, lost Eden and the graces of paradise, the same power which magnified itself in creation glorified itself more mightily in redemption. "God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son." The Second Person took upon Himself the work of expiation and redemption. To this end He became man and made Himself the second Adam, that through a divine humanity He might pay our debt and heal the wounds of sin, which had corrupted and enfeebled our nature. In this work the Three Persons of the Trinity co operate, and here the Holy Ghost has His peculiar office.

Directly does He concur to the incarnation of God the Word. By His power the immaculate Virgin conceived. "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee," said the archangel Gabriel to her, "and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; therefore the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." The Word was, then, " conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary." By His touch her pure substance was formed into the spotless body of Jesus Christ; and by His breath the soul of God Incarnate was created. Upon that humanity, the greatest and most beautiful work of God, the energies of the divine Spirit, with all His gifts, were put forth. His all-perfecting fingers were ever upon that humanity to fashion and mould its features, as the Man-God "grew in wisdom and age, and grace with God and men."  Through all the steps of His earthly work the Redeemer was "led by the Spirit" from height to height of oblation. The Paraclete watched with protecting wings over the humanity conceived by His energy. He filled the womb of St. Elizabeth and caused the unborn forerunner to exult with joy. "John gave testimony, saying, I saw the Spirit coming down as a dove from heaven, and He remained upon Him."

So at the baptism in Jordan "heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape as a dove upon Him."  "Evidently great," says the apostle, " is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh and justified in the Spirit." This work of the Spirit in and over the humanity of Christ was carried on through all the bitterness .of the Passion, in the sharpness of death, until the resurrection dawned in a new light, and the Man-God was "taken up into glory."

And when the Word made flesh had finished His earthly work, had paid the penalty due to our sins, and had ascended on high, it was the office of the Spirit to carry on and complete that work. "It is expedient for you that I go," said our Lord to His sorrowing disciples: "for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you: but if I go, I will send Him to you." "He, the Spirit of truth, shall teach you all things. He shall glorify me, because He shall receive of mine, and shall show it to you." "When He cometh, He shall give testimony of me," and " you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you." "I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, who will never leave you, who will abide with you for ever." "He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you." So in the quickening energy of His nature, and the love of which He is the expression, the Paraclete takes up the work of the ascended Christ, brings all His teaching into fruitful light, and by His mighty operations applies the precious Blood of Calvary, and completes the redemption. " Jesus Christ came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifieth that Christ is the truth."

The same energy which fashioned the humanity of the second Adam, fashions also ours by the touch of "the quickening Spirit." "The Spirit Himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God. And if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be made conformable to the image of His Son."

If the work of the Third Person of the holy Trinity was glorious in the first creation, much more wonderful is His operation in the new, where the world of grace opens before us with all its treasures. He unites us to the humanity of our Redeemer, and consoles us with the knowledge of all He did and taught. He is the Comforter under whose reign of mercy we live. He that rejects Him shall find no comfort. He who grieves Him away shall be eternally lost. "The blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven." "He that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come." 

The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 7.

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

Who can venture to speak of that love which in . its immense tide inundates the bosom of the Trinity ? Yet may we reverently think of that unspeakable bliss where we behold our God in the boundless reach of His attributes, a unity and yet a Trinity; alone and yet not alone; in solitude and yet in glad communion with Himself; one in essence, and so alone in His immeasurable distance from things created; three in person, and so not alone in that inner life where Father, Son, and Holy Ghost embrace each other, and know each other, and are lost in felicity at this knowledge of the Divine perfections. Here is all knowledge, all speech, and all love. Here are the Unbegotten, the begotten Word, the prolific Spirit. Love divine gushes in its eternal fountain, and the light of Deity burns everlastingly in its source. So, following the steps of the Fathers, we may think of the Holy Spirit as the active and passive affection of the Godhead, the spring of peace, the tranquillity of order, the harmony of the Infinite in the ~ grandeur of His being. Oh! how it adds to our adoring wonder of the Divinity thus to contemplate the eternal Three in the distinctness of personality and the perfection of unity. Thus they give testimony in heaven, each in His place, and where the "Sanctus" of angels resounds, God, in three persons, knows, enjoys, and glorifies Himself. There the Word speaks the language which Divine ears alone can hear; there the Spirit " searches out the deep things of God."

2. The office of the Holy Ghost .in and towards created things is called His work outwards, though, strictly speaking, there is nothing without the Trinity.

There was an eternity when there was nothing but God; and Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were alone in their supreme and unapproachable rest. When it pleased the infinite will to create; things possible became existences, and in the order and sphere eternally appointed. Light dawned upon material worlds. The spheres rolled in their orbits, and the beauty of the visible creation bloomed beneath the divine touch. The voice of things made broke the silence of eternity, and the morning stars sang in joyful chorus. Angels assembled around the throne, and cherubim and seraphim knelt in mute adoration before the consuming fire. So towards creatures the Holy Spirit hath a special office, and, in harmony with His work within the bosom of Deity, He comes forth to complete, beautify and sanctify the whole creation. "Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created ; and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth."
.
"In the beginning God created heaven and earth: and the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved over the waters." * When God spoke, the Word went forth, and "all things were made by Him." f Yet it was the office of the Spirit to brood upon the shapeless mass of chaos, that from His fecundating energy, order and beauty might come forth. When, in the new earth created for our use, the race of man was to take its place, the Three Persons communed together. "Let us make man to our image and likeness." Then was man made with the royal mark upon him, with an intelligent soul, with memory, will, and understanding, in the image of the eternal Three who formed him. Upon our first father, Adam, the Holy Ghost descended, and so was "he made into a living soul." Reason ruled within him, and, by the power of the sanctifying Spirit, there was harmony between soul and body. There was peace, which is "the tranquillity of order," and no war was known between the rational and irrational natures. We attribute to the Third Person of the Trinity the special office in creation of establishing order, of harmonizing elements that might be in conflict, of causing life and beauty to bloom where, without His celestial touch, all would be dead and shapeless. He is the uncreated beauty shining in the things He touches; the divine order leading created intelligences up to the living Unity, which is God. He is "the living spring, the living fire, sweet unction and true love."

So, gazing over the face of the material universe, where there are wonders far above our comprehension and beauties above our capacity of appreciation, we see everywhere "the finger of God's right hand." In every ray that illumines the earth; in the glory of the forests; in the grandeur of the mountains ; in the order of the firmament with its myriad spheres; in the flowers that exhale their sweet odor; in the human face and form, that speak of a world unknown; in all we behold the finishing touch of the eternal Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son; in creatures, as in the bosom of Deity, showing forth the beauty of God, and telling, as human ears may be able to hear, of His perfections. "Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night" showeth knowledge."

The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 6.

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

II. THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

In our contemplation of God and the divine Persons we may reverently look at the Deity within itself and at the Deity in its action outwards upon things created.

1. Within the sacred Trinity each Person may have His office, as each has His place and relations. The Father, who is of none, and who is called by spiritual writers " the root and fountain of the whole Divinity," begets the eternal Son, and is to Him, in the truest sense of our inadequate language, a father. All that this relation involves belongs to Him with the full rights of paternity. He is, in the figures of prophecy, the " Ancient of days." He sits upon the throne, sending forth the streams of light and grace, and holding in His hands the scales of impartial justice, according to the law which is the expression of His will. What He is to the Son eternally begotten by Him, "the brightness of his glory and the figure of His substance," let no one but that Son presume to tell.

If paternity mean anything of strength, and care, and tenderness in our speech, in the divine tongue it must mean much more.

The Son, from all eternity generated by the will of the Father, comes forth, with the fullness of the divine essence, to express the glory of Deity and the power of that Deity within itself. To paternity filiation responds, and the Son gives back the love that He receives in the might of a divine filial affection. God only can know Himself. God only can worthily love Himself. Here all that sonship signifies is real in the immensity of Deity. Its loyalty, its consecration, its expression of likeness are all here, and all heightened to infinity; because the Son begotten is equal to the Father, and the eternal generation presents a coequal and consubstantial Son. He is not only the likeness of His Father ; He is in all things equal to Him, having His whole substance and the whole indivisible divine essence. Oh! what joy is here in the unapproachable felicity of the Trinity: the Father contemplating the Son; the Son contemplating the Father; God loving Himself! Perhaps it may be part of the beatitude of saints to know something of this joy, and to be filled with some faint impulses of this gladness, when they see God as He is, and are borne into the sphere of the attractions of His being.

The spiration of the Holy Ghost is the last of the divine processions. Here, as some of the Fathers reverently say, the Father and the Son, as one principle, by an act of supreme love breathe forth the co-etemal Spirit. It is the act of their mutual love, and the Spirit of Father and Son proceeds from both, the pledge of their mutual affection and the expression of beatitude. This completes, if we may so speak, the circle of the divine productiveness, and the Spirit, being one in substance and equal in power and glory, is, in the words of St. Bernard, "the sacred kiss of the Father and the Son, as their imperturbable peace, their firm co-inherence, their undivided love, their indivisible unity." "The Holy Ghost proceeds from both and embraces both, as the indissoluble bond of charity, the sweetest kiss of peace, the most blessed embrace of mutual love." Thus in the Trinity "there are two origins, the first by the way of knowledge and the other by the way of love. By the first is a Son co-eternal with His Father, who comes forth from the bosom of the Father, but leaves it not; who receives all from Him, but is not dependent on Him. By the second is the Holy Ghost produced like the Son, but not, like Him, begotten. The Son proceeds from the Father as the ray from the sun; the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son as heat from the ray and the sun; the Son as the word, the Holy Ghost as the breath; the Son as the river from the fountain, the Holy Ghost as the lightning from the cloud. These expressions are all good, but all defective. The ray wants equality, the heat substance ; the word wants reality, the breath solidity, the river stability, the lightning duration and life. But here the ray is equal to the sun; the heat consubstantial with its principle; the word says all, and is all that it says ; the breath goes forth unceasingly, and never breathes its last; the river flows continually, and abides ever in its source; the fire of heaven burns always, and never burns away."  If the divine Spirit may be called the expression of the eternal mutual love of the Father and the Son, what must be the transport of His being when, in response to the spiration of that love, He gives back the affection by which He proceeds! 

The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 5.

theophilia.deviantart.com

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

The Holy Ghost is in all things equal to the Father and the Son, from whom He eternally proceeds, and with whom He is consubstantial. "In this Trinity nothing is prior or posterior, nothing is greater or less ; but the whole three Persons are co-eternal to one another and co equal." (Creed of St. Athanasius).

In speaking of the nature of God's being we necessarily transcend the powers of reason, but we in no sense contradict reason, which in its finite sphere can predicate nothing of the Infinite. While there might be contradiction in the idea of three human persons in one human being, there cannot be the slightest in the mystery of the Trinity which reveals to us the mode of God's existence. To attempt to see contradiction here would be to reason from things made and imperfectly comprehended to the uncreated and incomprehensible. Here the one office of right reason is to hear, believe, and adore.

There is still another truth to be presented before we finish our brief exposition of the Christian doctrina concerning the divine Spirit. He is called the third Person of the eternal Trinity, because they are three who bear testimony in heaven, and they are as distinct in person as they are one in essence. The terms first, second, and third are only to mark such distinction. It is manifest that there can be no first in any dignity of nature or power. In the unity of the Trinity there is, however, a marvellous order expressed as clearly as our poor language will admit, and revealed to us as far as our finite intellects may bear it. "The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. The Son is from the Father alone, not made nor created, but begotten. The Holy Ghost is from the Father and the Son, not made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding." (Creed of St. Athanasius.) The Father from all eternity communicates the divine essence to the Son, and this communication we call generation, by which there is a true filial relation between the Father and the Son. Thus the Second Person is eternally begotten, and is of necessity consubstantial with Him by whom He is begotten. The Father and the Son eternally communicate the divine essence to the Holy Spirit by a process which we call procession. In this act they are one principle, and there is one spiration. The Father is the principle of the Son in the eternal act of generation. The Father and the Son are the principle of the Holy Ghost in the eternal act of spiration. We say principle intrinsic, since all is within the essence of Deity. We use not the word cause, since this term may imply an extrinsic agency, and the cause may also produce an effect which shall in nature be distinct from itself. Thus in the holy Trinity we admit two origins, generation and procession. From these flow the four relations which exist between the divine Persons. Paternity truly belongs to the Father, because He begets His eternal and consubstantial Son. The filial relation of the Second Person responds to the paternity of the Father. And as the Father and Son together breathe forth the Spirit there are the relations of procession and spiration. These wonderful relations in God are true and real.

We call, therefore, the Holy Ghost the Third Person of the undivided Trinity, because He eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son. This is the clear confession of our creed. Thus the General Council of Florence defines "that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father, and the Son as from one principle and by one spiration." In the Sacred Scriptures He is called the Spirit of Christ, as well as the Spirit of God; and He is the Paraclete sent by the Son to accomplish His work on earth. He glorifies the incarnate Word on earth, since He takes of that which is His and shows it unto us. He then proceeds from the Father and the Son as from a fountain and origin, and has all things common with them.

Such is the mystery of the Trinity which declares the divine personality of the Holy Ghost. While there is perfect distinction, so that in regard of personality there is no confusion; there is also the intimate existence of one Person in the other by reason of unity of essence. Thus, according to St. Fulgentius, "the Father is wholly in the Son and Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly in the Father and Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father and the Son." To this end are the words of Christ, twice repeated: "1 am in the Father, and the Father in me." (St. John xiv. 11.) When the apostle is transported at the sight of the ways of God in the works of His hand he cries out in wonder: " O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! how incomprehensible are His judgments and how unsearchable His ways!" Much more will the Christian soul tremble and exult at the thought of the greatness of his Maker. Wonderful in His ways, how far beyond all the reach of finite intellect is He wondrous in Himself ! There from things created, from things conceivable, the mind ascends where clouds and darkness are the outskirts of the throne, where cherubim and seraphim veil their faces before the uncreated light, and all the universe, poised on the divine hand, bows down in adoration. Such is our God, a Trinity in unity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in their supreme rest and unspeakable bliss.

The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 4

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

The divinity of the Holy Spirit is evident from the nature of His personality in the eternal Trinity. He is proceeding from the Father and the Son as one principle, and so has His distinct mode of subsistence, while He possesses the whole of the divine essence. In the Sacred Scriptures the name, properties, and operations of God are attributed to Him. He bears the incommunicable name of God in the same manner as the Father and the Son. Omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence are attributed to Him.

"The Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world." (Wisdom i. 7) ''The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. The things that are of God, no one knoweth but the Spirit of God."(1 Cor. ii. 10,11.) "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all the power of them by the Spirit of His mouth." (Psalm xxxii. 6.)

Thus it is the Holy Ghost who creates, renews the face pf the earth, works the miracles of grace, and will, by His power, raise the bodies of the dead. "Thou shalt send forth thy Spirit, and they shall be created ; and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth." (Psalm ciii. 30.) "Ye are the temple of God, for the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." (I Cor 3:16.) "If the Spirit of Him, that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit that dwelleth in you." (Rom. viii. 11.) So the words of the text clearly sum up the whole doctrine : " There are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit." If, therefore, there are three witnesses, they are distinguished from each other. "I am one," says our Lord, "that give testimony of myself; and the Father that sent me, giveth testimony of me." (St. John viii. 18) "The Spirit of truth shall not speak of Himself. He shall glorify me, because He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." (St. John xvi. 13)

The Word, therefore, and the Holy-Spirit, who concur with the Father in giving testimony; are not two energies or attributes of the Father. They must be distinct persons, else there would not be three witnesses. They cannot be distinct in essence, else there would be three Gods, which is impossible. They are therefore distinct in personality, as we have already seen. But " these three distinct persons are one." The unity of essence in the divine Persons is manifest. It is a necessity of God's being, which can suffer neither change nor division. The very notion of such change would destroy the fundamental idea of deity. If there were not one and the same essence in the Word and Holy Spirit as in the Father, they would be at an infinite distance from the Father, and could not be one with Him. "I and my Father are one" (St. John x. 30.) says our Lord to the Jews, who stoned Him for the assertion of His divinity. And to Philip, His disciple, He thus - speaks: " So long a time have I been with you, and have you not known me? He that seeth me, seeth the Father also." (St. John xiv. 9.) "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (St. John 1:1) As the Word was God by unity of essence with the Father, so also, from all eternity the Holy Ghost is God. Thus the divine Three who bear testimony in heaven are one.

The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 3

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

I. WHO IS THE HOLY GHOST ?

1. He is a divine Person. He possesses all the attributes of personality, In created intelligences we define personality to signify "an individual substance possessed of a rational nature." In applying this term to God we do not speak of three separate and individual substances. Our language is too imperfect to express exactly the nature and attributes of the divine Being. In God nature, existence, and essence are one, since He Himself is His own essence, existence, and eternity. Persons, among created intelligences, have a distinct subsistence, but also a distinct and separate entity, which by its own limitation can make but one individual. In God, however, the divine Persons have only a distinct mode of subsistence, since they possess each, and in common the whole divine essence. Hence we say that there are three persons in God, not three individuals; since the term individual signifies a distinct nature, which is impossible to the divine hypostases, in whom there is one essence and nature, and therefore one natural or essential mind, will, and operation. Nothing can be added to the clearness of the words of the Athanasian creed: "Such as the Father is, such is the Son and such is the Holy Ghost." The three Persons are uncreated, immense, eternal, and almighty. Yet they are not three eternals, three almighties, three uncreated, nor three immense. There is only one eternal, almighty, immense, and uncreated God. "The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. Yet they are not three Gods, but one God." The personality of the Holy Ghost is contained in this : that He is not the Father nor the Son, although one with them in essence. Thus our Lord says: "When the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, He shall give testimony of me."  Here are mentioned three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Paraclete. The Father is one person. The Son is another, and of the same nature with the Father) because His Son. The Paraclete is another person, who proceedeth from the Father, and who is to give testimony of the Son. He could not give such testimony if He were not a distinct person.

The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 2

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

There can be no greater degradation than the denial of man's spirituality and immortality. Such denial makes him like the beasts of the field, the creature of his animal passions, without any future. To such degradation tends the force of the enlightenment of our day. In the eyes of modern philosophers self-denial is folly, and the communion of saints a silly dream. Desires for holiness and thirst after God are to them only the unreal sentiment of enfeebled minds and feminine hearts. The mysteries of the cross, and the mortifications of confessors, martyrs, and virgins, are the ravings of men who have lost their manhood in the imagination of a world unseen and unknown. What shall break the spell of worldliness, turn to bitterness the cup of pleasure, and open the eyes of the wilfully blind? We need to cry mightily to the Spirit whose creating energy once brooded upon the disorder of chaos:
" Come, Holy Ghost, Creator, come From Thy bright heavenly throne ; Come, take possession of our souls, And make them all Thine own.

" Heal our wounds, our strength renew, On our dryness pour Thy dew ; Wash the stains of guilt away."

Then at His coming the earth shall be moved, and when the darkness of sin flies away, the glories of the new birth shall be seen, and the beauties of the spiritual life shall attract and win the heart. The graces of faith and hope and love shall conquer, and saints be raised again to glorify the power and sweetness of the Creator. He that is great and wonderful in the visible world, is far more wonderful and mighty in the realm of faith, where human spirits commune with the divine Spirit and partake of His life.

Such fruits, if it please the gracious Author of all good, may be reaped from this " Confraternity of the Servants of the Holy Ghost." In answer to our earnest prayers the flame of new piety shall be enkindled in many hearts. Souls shall be converted to God from the way of sin and sorrow, and many from the paths of error and unbelief turned to the true and unchangeable faith in the church where the divine Spirit dwells in all the fulness of grace and truth. There shall be sanctification for the just, life for the dying, and spiritual resurrection for the dead. In this hope we labor, and to this blessed end we invoke the special interposition of the almighty Spirit, whose gracious ears are ever open to the cries of the needy and sincere.

The object of this short series of discourses is, then, to set in plain view the fundamental truths of our religion concerning the Holy Ghost and His operations in our redemption ; and to draw from thence the necessity of a true love and ardent devotion towards Him.

The first discourse concerns His person and office; the second regards His visible church, which is His temple and the sphere of His action upon earth; * the third recounts the consequences of His dwelling in the church; and the fourth attempts to portray the fruits of His sanctification in the individual believer.

The sermon of to-night will serve as a foundation of the whole series, and to the theological statements contained in it we therefore call your earnest attention.

We propose to answer these two questions: "Who is the Holy Ghost?" and "What is His peculiar office?" There is hardly need to say that here, while we approach the very essence of God
and speak of the nature of His being, we must do so with that reverence which becomes the creature in the presence of his Creator, and that fear which the nearness of God should ever excite in just minds. If God, in His goodness, had not been pleased to reveal Himself and to tell us of His being, we should have sought to know it in vain. It is t not in the capacity of the finite to scan or comprehend the Infinite. For all we know of our Creator we depend upon His condescension, and if He did not dwell in clouds of mystery before our created intellects He would not be God. The Infinite only can comprehend Himself.

The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 1

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

"There are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one."—1 St. John v. 7.

I propose, with the divine assistance, to devote the sermons of this Advent season to a brief and simple explanation of the agency of the Holy Spirit in the redemption of mankind. The subject is of the highest importance, as it lies at the foundation of all truth and spiritual life; while it is directly connected with the whole structure of Christian revelation. Every verity of our creed, and every error opposed to faith find here the light which makes truth resplendent,and puts to flight the shadows of unbelief.

As you are aware, we have recently established in this church a religious confraternity whose object is to promote, and spread more widely devotion and filial affection to the Third Person of the most holy Trinity. We venture to hope that our instructions may be welcome to many hearts, and, by the grace of God, stimulate them to more zeal in the Christian life and burning love to the divine Sanctifier, who is the author of our supernatural life and the fountain of all holiness.

This devotion to the Holy Ghost is a necessary part of Christian worship, as we adore one God in three Persons, and there is no distinction in essence between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who are one and the same God. "This is the Catholic faith, that we adore one God in trinity, and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the Persons nor separating the substance. One is the person of the Father, another that of the Son, and another that of the Holy Spirit. But one is the divinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; the glory is equal and the majesty is co-eternal." (Creed of St Athanaaius.)

It would be heresy striking at the foundation of Christianity to distinguish even in our minds the adoration we pay to the three Persons of the Trinity, in whose name we are baptized, and by whom we are created and sanctified. New devotion towards the Third Person of the Godhead is only the realization of the old and unchangeable truth, the bringing into clearer light and action that which is essential to our Christian confession and spiritual life.

This is manifest not only from the nature of the Holy Spirit as God, but also from the fact that, in the plans of the Trinity, and the economy of redemption, He is the agent in the application of the atonement of Christ, and in the sanctification of our souls. To Him we owe every good thought, word, or work. From Him we receive the gift of supernatural life. He, by His divine energy, sustains that life once imparted, and carries it on to its development in the union of our whole being with God. He is the soul and living principle of the church, which without Him would be only a human organization, subject to decay and death. He is the source of its unity, and the voice which speaks the words of immutable truth. What, then, do we not owe of love and gratitude to the quickening and sanctifying Spirit!

And surely there never was a time when men needed more the aid of His purifying influence. We walk amid shadows, which we often mistake for light. Men exalt their little knowledge, and even boast of their ignorance. In the pride of their intellects they have arrived at the denial of the only source whence truth can come. Is it not the very height of folly to ignore the being and attributes of God, and in the assertion of self to deny the Deity, without which there is neither the possibility of being nor the faculty of knowledge ? Infidelity has grown bold, and from the rejection of the Christian Church, and the verities of her creed, has come to the unblushing denial of the great First Cause, whose attributes are essential to the existence of all dependent being. Is there any light but that of the Divinity which can illumine eyes so darkened by the mists of pride and the worship of self?

Then the materialism of our age, which measures all things by sense, depresses the instincts of the spiritual life and draws away the heart from the supernatural world wherein we truly live, and for which we were created. 

The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 28.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

"Because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, Who is given to us." Romans v. 5.

Yet it is not only the Holy Ghost we receive through grace and with grace, but all Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. Our Lord says explicitly in the Gospel of St. John: "If anyone love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to Him, and will make Our abode with Him." John xiv. 23.

This is why the Apostle, in his exhortations to the early Christians, on the necessity of shunning all sin, of preserving pure and without spot the sanctuary of their soul, could find no more powerful appeal, no more urgent reason, no more persuasive argument, than the fact that they were the temple of God: "Know you not that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are." 1 Cor iii. 16, 17.

We must pause here, lest we multiply excessively the Scripture texts that prove the fact of a mission, a giving of the Divine Persons, an indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the just soul. Our present task will be to gather together the teachings contained in these passages and set them forth in concise language.

What first strikes the reader in all these texts, taken in their natural and obvious meaning, and that shines forth with the clearest evidence, is the fact of a special presence of God in souls in the state of grace. In truth, if the Holy Ghost is sent to these souls, is it not in order that He be present to them otherwise than He is present elsewhere, for if He be present to them in the common ordinary way, what does this second mission mean, and what new thing does it give to the soul?

The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 27.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

There is perhaps no truth more frequently alluded to in the Gospel and in the Epistles of St. Paul than that of the mission, that is to say, the giving, the indwelling of the Divine Persons in the souls of the just. When about to leave this earth to return to His heavenly Father, Our Lord promised to send the Paraclete to His Apostles, wishing thereby to comfort them, and to lessen somewhat the sorrow caused by His departure: "I tell you the truth; it is expedient to you that I go; for if I go not the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you." John xvi. 7.  "When the Paraclete cometh, Whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth Who proceeds from the Father, He will give testimony of Me, and you also will give testimony of Me, because you have been with Me from the beginning" John xv. 26, 27.

Again He said to them: "If you love Me, keep My Commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever; the Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, nor knoweth Him; but you shall know Him, because He shall abide with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you." John xiv. 15-18. This new Comforter Whom Jesus promises to His Apostles, is no other than the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, as He calls Him, i.e., the Spirit of the Son, Who Himself is the substantial and essential Truth: "I am the truth." John xiv. 6.  As long as He dwelt among them, Jesus Himself comforted His disciples; now that His departure will unavoidably expose them to tribulations of all kinds, He promises them another comforter, the Holy Ghost, Whom He will send from the Father.

This mission of the Holy Ghost, this giving of the Paraclete, Whom Jesus promised to His chosen ones, was not, however, to be the exclusive privilege of the Apostles; it was intended also as the privilege of all those who, through grace were made the children of God This is why St. Paul, writing to the Galatians, says to them: "Because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba (Father). Galatians iv. 6.  "You have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba (Father)." Romans viii. 15.

The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 26.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

PART SECOND

GOD'S SPECIAL PRESENCE OR THE INDWELLING 

OF THE HOLY GHOST IN THE SOULS 

OF THE JUST

CHAPTER I

The Fact of God's Special Presence in the Just. 

The Sending and the Bestowal of God the 

Holy Ghost; His Indwelling 

in the Soul

"Over and above the ordinary and common manner in which God is present in all things (namely, by His essence, His power, and His presence, as the cause is present in the effects which are a participation in His goodness), there is another and a special presence which is appropriate to rational nature, a presence by which God is said to be present as that which is known is present to the being who knows, and as that which is loved is present to the being who loves. And because a rational and a loving creature by its operation in knowing and loving is placed in contact with God Himself, for that reason it is said that God by this special manner of presence is not only in a rational creature, but also that He dwells in it as in His temple. No other effect than sanctifying grace can be the reason why of this new manner of presence of the Divine Person. It is therefore solely by sanctifying grace that the Divine Person is thus sent forth and proceeds temporarily. . . . And always, together with grace, one receives also the Holy Spirit Himself, Who is thus given and sent.''

Despite their brevity, these words of St. Thomas contain a wonderful summary of the question we are studying. Here we find clear mention of, first, the! fact of this special presence of God in the soul which is in the state of grace; second, the nature of this presence; it is a substantial, that is to say, a most real presence; God is present not merely by His favors, but in: Person; third, the mode of this presence: He is there no longer in the capacity of an active or efficient cause, but as a Guest and a Friend, as an object of knowledge and love; fourth, the subjects who alone can benefit by such a gift, must be rational beings; fifth, the condition for this presence is the state of grace.

To be well understood, these considerations should each be deeply pondered; they shall receive a treatment proportioned to the difficulties each may present, and to the degree of their importance. We shall devote our attention first to the fact of this special presence of God in the souls of the just.

The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 25.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

What are we to conclude from all this, save that God is present in all beings and in all places, not as the liquid in the vessel that contains it, since God cannot be contained by creatures, but rather that it is He Who contains them by preserving them; nor as a constituent element of these creatures as the soul is present to the body, for this would be Pantheism; but as the cause and as the active principle is present to the object upon which it exerts an immediate influence. He is present everywhere, not directly and immediately by His substance, although there is no space from which the latter is absent, but rather by His operation and the contact of His power; for the Divine substance being absolute needs no relation with beings existing in time, and being simple and without parts, it, in order to be present any and everywhere, does not have to extend itself through space. Yet since operation, operative power, and substance are not really distinct one from another in God, we must affirm that wherever there is an immediate effect due to the Divine causality, there God is really and substantially present. And as there is not a single creature on which God does not exert His activity to preserve and to move it, it follows that God is present everywhere, not only by His action or power, but also by His essence.

When, therefore, Scripture speaks of God as filling heaven and earth: "Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?"  these words are not to be taken in their literal meaning any more than the other anthropomorphisms found so plentifully in Holy Writ. God's immensity, as we have often insisted, must not be understood in the sense of extension, and we cannot liken it to a boundless ocean containing in its depths all existing things, interpenetrating each portion of the created world and overflowing on all sides. It is to commentators and to theologians that we must appeal for the true meaning hidden under the expressions the Holy Spirit has employed in order that He might be understood by all. Such was the attitude of St. Thomas toward the above text.

And since being and the other perfections are communicated to creatures in degrees that vary amazingly —from the grain of sand up to that highest of heavenly spirits—the presence of God as efficient cause has also innumerable degrees, according to the measure in which each creature shares in the Divine perfection.

The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 24.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

IV

Although, therefore, God is everywhere and wholly present in every place, He is not equally present everywhere. There are certain places where He dwells in such a particular manner that one might call these places the home or dwelling house of God. It is in these privileged spots, according to St. John Damascene, that the Divine operation is most manifest. Such was the spot, in days of yore, where Jehovah was pleased to reveal himself to Jacob in wondrous visions, and called by him "the house of God and the gate of heaven." Again, at the sight of the miracles performed in his favor, and of the mystical ladder between earth and heaven which he beheld in a dream, as well as in the marvelous promises made to him by the God of his fathers, the holy patriarch recognized a special presence of the Divinity even in the heart of the desert. Under the old law, God dwelt in a special way in the tabernacle built by Moses, and later in the temple of Jerusalem, where His presence was made manifest under the form of a mysterious cloud.

Finally, how can we fail to recognize a special presence of the Divinity (were it only as the efficient Cause), in the prophets to whose minds the Holy Ghost unveiled the future, and in the other inspired writers, as well as in the Apostles whom He assisted and enlightened; in the saints, who_receive more abundant graces; in the Church, which He safeguards from error, sanctifies and defends against her enemies: in a word, wheresoever His operation is more plainly felt, wheresoever His favors are distributed more lavishly, in the natural order as well as in the order of grace. And because it is in heaven that God's action displays itself with the greatest splendor, because it is there that His Divine bounty becomes, as it were, forgetful of all limitation— it is there, according to St. Bernard, that God is present in so special a manner, that by comparison in other places He is not present at all. This is why we pray in the Lord's prayer: "Our Father, Who art in heaven"

The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 23.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

St. Prosper: "It is not in passing over space that we come nearer to God or go farther from Him, but it is by similarity or dissimilarity to Him." 

Our own soul may furnish an analogy. While it is in its substance entirely present in the whole body and in each part, it is nevertheless more specially and fully and perfectly united to the head, the seat of all the senses, than to the rest of the organism. This is easily explained. In order to perform the functions of the many faculties with which it is endowed, the soul needs a variety of organs, all of which are not met with throughout all the body, but are found united only in the head. In all truth, we can say that, although "the soul is present entirely and substantially in the whole body, and in each part, it is, however, by its power, more chiefly and excellently present in the brain," as St. Bernard has said.

It can now be understood how, notwithstanding His perfectly indivisible simplicity, God can be here more than there; and how His presence as an efficient cause, though formally and specifically the same everywhere, can, when considered in its extension, vary, so to say, infinitely according to the very measure of the Divine activity. In this sense His presence is more complete, more excellent, and more perfect where the results of His activity are more multiplied and of a higher nature, while it decreases in the same measure as the effects of His Divine power are more remote from the perfection of the cause which produced them. This accounts for the saying, that some beings are near to God while others are far from Him. Here it is question not of a material or local relation, but of a likeness or unlikeness of nature or of grace. Thus, the angels—brightest mirrors of the Divinity, mundissima Divinitatis specula, as St. Dionysius calls them—dwell, as it were, in the very vestibule of the adorable Trinity, because, being the most perfect of creatures, they are nearer to God. Material beings, on the contrary, are relegated to the lowest grade of creation, and thus are further away from God because of the unlikeness of their nature to His. Man, being made of both spirit and matter, holds the middle place between these two classes of beings. Although less united to God than the pure spirits, he having a soul, is incomparably nearer to Him than are irrational creatures who have not the power to lift themselves up to their Creator by knowledge and love. This is why it is said that man was created to the image and likeness of God, whereas only a vestige of the Divinity is to be found in animals, plants, and inorganic beings.

Still further below the material world is the place occupied by the sinner, because of his moral unlikeness to God. Of him alone does Holy Writ speak when it says that the Lord is far from the wicked.  St. Augustine, speaking of his sinful life, says of his own previous state of sinfulness: "I was then far off in the region of unlikeness." Such words have become current in Christian speech. Talking about a person, who, for a long time has been neglectful of his religious duties, and who wallows in sin, we say: "He lives far from God." But let him begin to show better dispositions, and then we say: "He is drawing nearer to God." These expressions are most appropriate; for, according to St. Prosper: "It is not in passing over space that we come nearer to God or go farther from Him, but it is by similarity or dissimilarity to Him." 

The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 22.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

III

After the foregoing explanation it will not be difficult to understand the Angelic Doctor, when he says that God is in all things, as the cause is in the effects which participate in the causal goodness. This is but another way of saying that God is present to creatures as efficient cause, first, by His operation, for it is requisite that every principle or cause of action shall enjoy immediate contact with the object of its action;, and then by reason of His benefits, which constitute the purpose of His operation; namely, by the created, finite contingent, communicated perfection which He communicates to creatures of this world as so many remote imitations, imperfect copies or analogical participation's in the Divine Essence. Indeed, it is the peculiar quality of an efficient cause to communicate more or less of the perfection of its own self with its effects, and to be not only in forceful contact with them at the first moment and during the continuance of its operation, but even to transmit to them its own similitude. It is even natural to an efficient cause to produce something which resembles itself, and the perfection of the effect is none other than a reproduction of and participation in and resemblance to the perfection of the cause. "That which is in God perfectly, is found in other things by a certain deficient participation."

God, then, is the universal Cause of all existence, for all the beings of the world are the effects of His power. "All, then, must possess something of God within themselves, not any portion of His substance, but a likeness of and participation in His goodness," after the manner of a foot-print or image.  Moreover, since the effects of the Divine activity are different in different creatures, and the Divine benefits are far from being equally distributed—whether we consider the order of nature or of grace—it follows that those which have a greater share in the blessings of the Creator are by that very fact nearer and more united to God and richer in their possession of Him. In turn, "God as active principle, exists more perfectly in those creatures which are more indebted to His munificence, for as He is present directly and immediately by virtue of His activity, He is consequently more closely united to the beings in whom He has worked the greatest things." 16 If God's substance, so simple and single and indivisible, knowing neither separation nor division, cannot be anywhere unless it be there entirely, it is not the same with His operation and His all-embracing power, which, while free to realize itself externally in the measure it judges right, is brought by a multitude of ways into contact with different creatures.

The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 21.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

In speaking of creatures, then, as entities participating of the deity, we wish to assert two truths: first, creatures do not possess being in all its fullness, but have merely a part of it, varying among themselves in quantity if you will, but essentially limited and restricted; secondly, this limited and restricted being does not accrue to them in any essential manner, even in virtue of their nature, but has been communicated to them by an extrinsic cause—God. In much the same way to the glowing steel has been imparted warmth and brilliancy by the operation of an outside agency, not because its nature demands it, but because it is igneous only by participation.
The Divine being, on the contrary, is not a borrowed being, a being proceeding from another. God holds His being from no one, for He has it by virtue of His nature. "He is, then, self-existent being Ens per se, being by essence, Ens per essentiam, in opposition to being that is contingent and dependent on another— Ens ab alio, ens per participationem. He is also preeminent being, self-subsistent, ipsum esse per se subsistens, and consequently He is infinite being, the very plenitude of being, ipsa plenitudo essendi. And if He is being in all its fullness, nothing can exist beyond Him, which is not traceable to Him as to its source, and which is not present in Him in a supereminent manner. Thus whatever being is outside of Him cannot be called simply being (ipsum esse simpliciter), rather they are beings —that is to say, participations in and imitations of being, entia per participationem." (St. Thomas, Contra Gent., 1, II., c. xv.)

What we have said of being should be applied to all the other perfections as well. All that God is, He is by Himself, by His essence, and consequently without measure. Hence He is not merely intelligent, wise, good, loving, powerful; He is intelligence and wisdom itself, infinite goodness and love and power, the source of all understanding and goodness. On the contrary, the creature can well be intelligent, wise, good and powerful, but is not intelligence itself, nor wisdom, nor love. Its perfections do not constitute its essence, but are simply either its powers, or properties, or operations, distinct from its essence, and limited as is the latter. In a word, these are participated perfections.

The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 20.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

To understand the meaning and the force of these words, we must recall a beautiful doctrine borrowed by the Angel of the Schools from the Greek Fathers, particularly from St. Dionysius, who had himself taken it from the writings of Plato.

According to Plato's teachings, and they coincide on this point with the teachings of Faith, every created being is a participation in the Divine being, and every created perfection is in some manner a participation in infinite perfection. Thus our nature is a participation in the Divine perfection; the light of our intelligence is a participation in the uncreated intelligence; our life, a participation in the life of God. Briefly, every particle of goodness, of perfection, of being in any creature whatsoever, is a participation in the being and goodness of God.

We must not conceive this communication of God to His creatures as a division of the Divine essence, just as one divides and distributes the parts of a fruit; rather, the Divine essence preserves its unity and fullness. Nor should we regard it as an emanation properly so-called, or a flowing out, an effusion of the Divine substance as rivulets flow from a single source, or as a warm body sheds its rays and heat upon everything that is near. The Divine goodness externizes itself by producing beings like unto itself, yet without any diminution of the Divine substance; for only its likeness is imparted to creatures. The process is akin to the impression of the seal on the wax, without any communication of the former's substance to the latter.

Hence this participation of creatures in the Divine goodness is not any community of being and perfection. Such a doctrine is pantheistic. Creatures have their own being, and their own goodness, which is at once the intrinsic and the formal cause, making them what they are. They are related to God inasmuch as God is their extrinsic cause, and this in a threefold sense, namely, the ideal according to which they have been created; the efficient cause; and the final and ultimate cause of their creation.

Not without reason then did the Fathers, and, under their influence, St. Thomas, speak of creatures as beings by participation, and of their perfections as participated perfections. In so speaking they had a twofold purpose; first, clearly to establish the profound difference between the Creator and creature, or rather the abyss which separates them; second, to impress upon men the fact, that every created being essentially depends on God as upon its exemplar and its efficient cause of existence. Indeed, the very words, participated being, signify a being that is finite, limited, restricted; for participation in anything, a family heritage, for example, means to take a part and not have entire possession. The same words further imply a borrowed being, a contingent being, a being proceeding from another being, and essentially depending upon some extrinsic cause. From the very fact that a thing is not being itself in all its plenitude—the ocean of being—but a mere rivulet or stream, it follows that what it possesses of being is not its own in virtue even of its essence, but comes to it from without, just as every tiny stream supposes a generating spring or fountain.