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."
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"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.