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.
