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| Against those who assert that the Spirit ought not to be glorified.
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Chapter XIX.
Against those who assert that the Spirit ought not to be
glorified.
48. “Be it
so,” it is rejoined, “but glory is by no means so
absolutely due to the Spirit as to require His exaltation by us in
doxologies.” Whence then could we get demonstrations of the
dignity of the Spirit, “passing all
understanding,”1114
if His communion
with the Father and the Son were not reckoned by our opponents as
good for testimony of His rank? It is, at all events, possible
for us to arrive to a certain extent at intelligent apprehension of
the sublimity of His nature and of His unapproachable power, by
looking at the meaning of His title, and at the magnitude of His
operations, and by His good gifts bestowed on us or rather on all
creation. He is called Spirit, as “God is a
Spirit,”1115
and “the
breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord.”1116
| 1116
Lam. iv. 20. Sic in A.V.
and R.V., the reference being to Zedekiah.
cf. Jer.
xxxix. 5. The
Vulgate reads, “Spiritus oris nostri Christus
Dominus,” from the Greek of the LXX. quoted by St.
Basil, “Πνεῦμα
προσώπου
ἡμῶν
χριστὸς
κύριος.” | He is called holy,1117
as the Father is holy, and the Son is
holy, for to the creature holiness was brought in from without, but
to the Spirit holiness is the fulfilment of nature, and it is for
this reason that He is described not as being sanctified, but as
sanctifying. He is called good,1118
as the Father is good, and He who was begotten of the Good is good,
and to the Spirit His goodness is essence. He is called
upright,1119
as “the
Lord is upright,”1120
in that He is
Himself truth,1121
| 1121
John xiv. 17; xv. 26;
xvi. 13; 1 John v. 6. | and is Himself
Righteousness,1122
having no
divergence nor leaning to one side or to the other, on account of
the immutability of His substance. He is called Paraclete,
like the Only begotten, as He Himself says, “I will ask the
Father, and He will give you another comforter.”1123
Thus names are borne by the Spirit
in common with the Father and the Son, and He gets these titles from
His natural and close relationship. From what other source
could they be derived? Again He is called royal,1124
| 1124
Ps. li. 12, lxx. πνεῦμα
ἡγεμονικόν.
Vulg. spiritus principalis. | Spirit of truth,1125
and Spirit of wisdom.1126
“The
Spirit of God,” it is said “hath made
me,”1127
and God filled
Bezaleel with “the divine Spirit of wisdom and understanding
and knowledge.”1128
Such names
as these are super-eminent and mighty, but they do not transcend His
glory.
49. And His operations, what are they? For
majesty ineffable, and for numbers innumerable. How shall we form
a conception of what extends beyond the ages? What were His
operations before that creation whereof we can conceive? How
great the grace which He conferred on creation? What the power
exercised by Him over the ages to come? He existed; He
pre-existed; He co-existed with the Father and the Son before the
ages. It follows that, even if you can conceive of anything
beyond the ages, you will find the Spirit yet further above and
beyond. And if you think of the creation, the powers of the
heavens were established by
the Spirit,1129
the establishment
being understood to refer to disability to fall away from good.
For it is from the Spirit that the powers derive their close
relationship to God, their inability to change to evil, and their
continuance in blessedness. Is it Christ’s advent?
The Spirit is forerunner. Is there the incarnate presence?
The Spirit is inseparable. Working of miracles, and gifts of
healing are through the Holy Spirit. Demons were driven out by
the Spirit of God. The devil was brought to naught by the
presence of the Spirit. Remission of sins was by the gift of the
Spirit, for “ye were washed, ye were sanctified,…in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the holy Spirit of our
God.”1130
There is
close relationship with God through the Spirit, for “God hath
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba,
Father.”1131
The
resurrection from the dead is effected by the operation of the Spirit,
for “Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created; and Thou
renewest the face of the earth.”1132
If here creation may be taken to mean
the bringing of the departed to life again, how mighty is not the
operation of the Spirit, Who is to us the dispenser of the life that
follows on the resurrection, and attunes our souls to the spiritual
life beyond? Or if here by creation is meant the change to a
better condition of those who in this life have fallen into sin, (for
it is so understood according to the usage of Scripture, as in the
words of Paul “if any man be in Christ he is a new
creature”1133
), the renewal which
takes place in this life, and the transmutation from our earthly and
sensuous life to the heavenly conversation which takes place in us
through the Spirit, then our souls are exalted to the highest pitch of
admiration. With these thoughts before us are we to be afraid of
going beyond due bounds in the extravagance of the honour we pay?
Shall we not rather fear lest, even though we seem to give Him the
highest names which the thoughts of man can conceive or man’s
tongue utter, we let our thoughts about Him fall too low?
It is the Spirit which says, as the Lord says,
“Get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I
have sent them.”1134
Are these the
words of an inferior, or of one in dread? “Separate me
Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called
them.”1135
Does a slave
speak thus? And Isaiah, “The Lord God and His Spirit hath
sent me,”1136
| 1136
Isa. xlviii.
16. Mr. C. F.
Johnston remarks: “In Isaiah xlviii. 16 St. Didymus, as translated by St.
Jerome, gives Spiritum suum. The Targum has the
same. St. Ambrose writes: ‘Quis est qui
dicit; misit me Dominus Deus et Spiritus Ejus; nisi Qui venit a
Patre, ut salvos faceret peccatores? Quem ut audis, et
Spiritus misit; ne cum legis quia Filius Spiritum mittit,
inferioris esse Spiritum crederes potestatis,’ (De
Sp. S. iii. 1, § 7.) The passage is quoted by St.
Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Cyril Hieros., and, as far as the
editor is aware, without any comment which would help to
determine their way of understanding the case of τὸ
πνεῦμα; but Origen,
on the words ‘Whosoever shall humble himself as this little
child’ (Comm. in Evang., Matt. xiii. 18)
says,—quoting the original, which may be rendered,
“‘humbling himself as this little child is imitating
the Holy Spirit, who humbled Himself for men’s
salvation. That the Saviour and the Holy Ghost were sent by
the Father for the salvation of men is made plain by Isaiah
saying, in the person of the Saviour, ‘the Lord sent me,
and His Spirit.’ It must be observed, however, that
the phrase is ambiguous, for either God sent and the Holy Ghost
also sent, the Saviour; or, as I understand, the Father sent
both, the Saviour and the Holy Ghost.’” The
Vulgate and Beza both render
“Spiritus.” The order of
the Hebrew is in favour of the nominative, as in the Vulgate and
lxx. cf. Note A on Chap. xlviii. of Isaiah in the
Speaker’s Commentary. | and “the
Spirit came down from the Lord and guided them.”1137
And pray do not again understand by
this guidance some humble service, for the Word witnesses that it was
the work of God;—“Thou leddest thy people,” it is
said “like a flock,”1138
and
“Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock,”1139
and “He led them on safely, so that
they feared not.”1140
Thus when you
hear that when the Comforter is come, He will put you in remembrance,
and “guide you into all truth,”1141
| 1141
John xvi. 13. cf. xiv.
26. | do
not misrepresent the meaning.
50. But, it is said that “He maketh
intercession for us.”1142
It follows
then that, as the suppliant is inferior to the benefactor, so far is
the Spirit inferior in dignity to God. But have you never heard
concerning the Only-begotten that He “is at the right hand of
God, who also maketh intercession for us”?1143
Do not, then, because the Spirit is
in you,—if indeed He is at all in you,—nor yet because
He teaches us who were blinded, and guides us to the choice of what
profits us,—do not for this reason allow yourself to be
deprived of the right and holy opinion concerning Him. For to
make the loving kindness of your benefactor a ground of ingratitude
were indeed a very extravagance of unfairness. “Grieve
not the Holy Spirit;”1144
hear the words
of Stephen, the first fruits of the martyrs, when he reproaches the
people for their rebellion and disobedience; “you do
always,” he says, “resist the Holy
Ghost;”1145
and again
Isaiah,—“They vexed His Holy Spirit, therefore He was
turned to be their enemy;”1146
and in
another passage, “the house of Jacob angered the Spirit of the
Lord.”1147
| 1147
Ps. cvi. 32; Micah ii.
7. | Are not
these passages
indicative of authoritative power? I leave it to the judgment
of my readers to determine what opinions we ought to hold when we
hear these passages; whether we are to regard the Spirit as an
instrument, a subject, of equal rank with the creature, and a fellow
servant of ourselves, or whether, on the contrary, to the ears of
the pious the mere whisper of this blasphemy is not most
grievous. Do you call the Spirit a servant? But, it is
said, “the servant knoweth not what his Lord
doeth,”1148
and yet the
Spirit knoweth the things of God, as “the spirit of man that
is in him.”1149
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