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.