477

CHAPTER IX.

THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT A THIRD PERSON IN THE GODHEAD, BUT GOD HIMSELF, OR HIS INFLUENCES, GIFTS, &c.

SECT. I.

DEFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE FOR THE DEITY OF THE HOLY
GHOST, AS A THIRD PERSON IN THE GODHEAD.

It has been the method of the wisest and best men, since the date of Christianity, to prefer express Scripture, or certain consequences from Scripture, before merely human and philosophical conjectures. - DR. DANIEL WATERLAND.

Ir cannot be proved, out of the whole number of passages in the Old Testament in which the Holy Spirit is mentioned, that this is a person in the Godhead; and it is now the almost universally received opinion of learned commentators, that, in the language of the Jews, the "Holy Spirit" means nothing more than divine inspiration, without any reference to a person.-J. D. MICHAELIS: Anmerk. on John xvi. 13-15.

The term "God" is never [in Scripture] expressly attributed to the Holy Spirit, though it is usual to infer it from Acts v. 4, where Peter, who in the third verse had asked Ananias, "Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?" says, "Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God." But, in our opinion, this deduction is not valid; for by the "Holy Spirit" are to be understood the gifts of the Holy Spirit, with which the apostles were furnished, and spoke in the name of God. Persons, therefore, who lie to the apostles speaking by the Holy Spirit of God, are rightly said to lie to the Holy Spirit; as those who despise the apostles are said to despise the Lord, and those who despise the Lord Jesus despise Him that sent him. -PHILIP LIMBORCH: Theol. Christiana, lib. ii. cap. 17, § 23.

The proof that divine worship was paid to the Holy Spirit is not so abundant and satisfactory as that adduced to prove that divine worship was rendered to Christ. . . . These [the texts in which the Holy

Spirit is called God, &c.] are sometimes used to prove the Divinity of the Holy Spirit, but are either inferior to the former in evidence, or have no bearing upon the subject. Writers have thought too much of the number of texts, and have collected indiscriminately many which have only an apparent relation to the subject. Especially they have endeavored to search out a multitude of texts in which the Holy Spirit is expressly called God. But the simple appellation "God" is not of itself sufficient to prove the Supreme Divinity of the subject to whom it is given, as Christ himself declared, John x. 34, 35. . . . It is doubtful, in many of these texts in which the predicate “God” is used, whether the Holy Spirit as a person is intended. Many of them, at least, may be explained without necessarily supposing a personal subject. The following texts are often quoted: Acts v. 3, 4. Peter tells Ananias, ver. 3, that Satan had induced him yɛvoαofαL TÒ πvεõμa äyɩov [“to lie to the Holy Spirit"], and afterwards, ver. 4. οὐκ ἐψεύσω ἀνθρώποις, ἀλλὰ τῷ θεῷ [" thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God"]. The same subject who is called the "Holy Spirit” in one place is called "God" in the other. But, from the comparison of other passages, it might be thought that the veõμa åyıov [Holy Spirit] was here to be understood in the subjective sense, and denoted the Spirit dwelling in the apostles; the higher knowledge and gifts with which they were endowed; their miraculous powers, as in ver. 32; and the passage could accordingly be explained thus: "Your crime is not to be considered as if you had intended to deceive mere men, because you knew that God had endowed us with supernatural knowledge." This explanation is confirmed by the very clear text, 1 Thess. iv. 8, "He who despises us despises not men, but God,” ròv dóvтa rò πνεῦμα αὐτοῦ τὸ ἅγιον εἰς ἡμᾶς [“ who hath given unto us his Holy Spirit"]. Cf. Exod. xvi., where it is said, ver. 2, that the Israelites rebelled against Moses and Aaron; but Moses tells them, ver. 8, "Your rebellion is not against us, but against God, whose messengers we are." Does this prove that Moses and Aaron belonged to the Godhead?... Matt. xxviii. 19 cannot, in itself considered, be used as a proof-text, because the mere collocation of the name Holy Spirit with that of the Father and Son does not prove that he possesses divine nature in common with them.... The passage, 2 Cor. iii. 17, ó de kúpios tò πveυμá έorɩ, has sometimes been translated, "the Spirit is Jehovah himself." But the meaning is, "Christ is the true Spirit of the Old Testament; " i. e., the Old Testament contains essentially the same doctrine which Christ taught, viz., the necessity of the

λέγον, κ. τ. λ.

renewal of the heart, and inward piety. Some have endeavored to prove the Divinity of the Holy Spirit from a comparison of different texts; but, in doing this, they have often resorted to forced and unnatural interpretations. An instance of this may be seen in the comparison of the texts, Isa. vi. 8-10 and Acts xxviii. 26, 27. In the former of these we read, "Jehovah said, Go to this people," &c. ; but in the latter, πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἐλάλησε διὰ Ἡσαΐου, ["the Holy Spirit spake by Esaias the prophet, saying," &c.] Here the same person who in the former text is called [Jehovah], in the latter is called vɛμa ayıov [the Holy Spirit]. But πvɛûμa äɣɩov may be used in its more general sense for the Deity, and does not here necessarily designate the person of the Holy Ghost. G. C. KNAPP: Christian Theology, sect. xl.

We have omitted from this quotation the following remarks of Dr. KNAPP: “But when it is proved, from other texts, that Christ, the apostles, and the early Christians, understood the πvɛõμa äɣlov [Holy Spirit] to be a personal subject, belonging to the Godhead (as those concerned in this event undoubtedly did), then this text [Acts v. 3, 4] and many of the following may be regarded as satisfactory proof of the Divinity of this Spirit. But when introduced before these texts, by which their meaning is determined, or out of their relation to them, they prove nothing. The sense of the text in Acts, as determined by the preceding texts, is plainly this: "For you to intend to deceive us, who are apostles, - us, whom you knew to be under the special influence of the Holy Spirit, is to be considered the same as if you had intended to deceive God; for you knew that he from whom this influence proceeds is regarded by us as God.' The same may be said with respect to the formula of baptism, Matt. xxviii. 19. ... When his Divinity [that of the Holy Spirit] has been proved by other texts, then this also may be cited; because from the former we learn how the latter must be understood, and was actually understood in the first ages of the church.”

That is, as we understand the qualification specified, Assume the truth of the proposition that the Holy Ghost is a third personal distinction in the divine nature, and certain passages of Scripture, which prove nothing of the kind, may be justly thought to afford satisfactory evidence for the doctrine! But, after all, the interpretation of Acts v. 3, 4, which Dr. KNAPP founds on the Trinitarian assumption, does not by any means imply that either Peter or Ananias considered the Holy Spirit to be a person different from the Father; and the reason is perfectly obvious; for the Father, — the "Father of lights," from whom "cometh every good and every perfect gift," the God who "anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy spirit and with power," imparting to him an unmeasured supply of that spirit, is himself emphatically a SPIRIT, and claims from all his intelligent offspring that they worship him as true worshippers, "in spirit and in truth." See James i. 17. Acts x. 38. John iii. 34; iv. 23, 24.

In proof of the Deity of the Holy Spirit, as a third person in the Godhead, this learned writer appeals to some half-dozen passages; which, however, as will be seen in future volumes of our work, may be more scripturally explained either of the divine agency personified, or of God himself, without involving the notion of hypostatical distinctions.

In theology, my father [pastor of a Lutheran church at Gersdorf and at Lichtenstein] remained true to the school of the celebrated CRUSIUS, and hence belonged to the orthodox. Still he could tolerate more liberal views; and I remember very well that he once said to a friend, what surprised me though a boy, “We cannot deny that our proofs for the independent Divinity of the Holy Spirit are very weak." C. T. BRETSCHNEIDER, in Bibliotheca Sacra for October, 1852; vol. ix. pp. 660–1.

There is one point, and only one, in which the evidence for the doctrine of the Trinity seems at all defective. In it [2 Cor. xiii. 14] Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are not called "God" in express terms. Orthodox Presbyterian for July, 1830.

2 Cor. iji. 17... has been adduced [by even so clear-headed a theologian as the elder EDWARDS] as a proof-text to establish the doctrine of the Divinity of the third person in the Holy Trinity, and the equality of each and all in their essence and dignity. But in our view, according to all the rules of enlightened interpretation, the passage has no more to do with the Trinity than with the transmigration of souls. That cardinal article of our faith is totally foreign from the train of reasoning pursued by the apostle, nor could he have introduced it there without doing violence to the laws of thought and association. Christian Review for June, 1837; vol. ii. p. 212.

Other authorities, acknowledging the deficiency of the evidence for the Deity of the Holy Ghost, as a person distinct from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, have been noticed in preceding pages. Thus, in pp. 337-8, 344–5, 357-8, Stuart, BUSHNELL, and SWEETSER, as well as J. D. MICHAELIS, confess that his personality was unknown to the Jews before and at the time of Christ; in pp. 366-8, 371, 374, 401, and 409, ERASMUS and COPPENSTEIN, Bishops TAYLOR and ATTERBURY, Dr. WILLIAM SHERLOCK, WITSIUS, and the Oxford Tractarians, own that such a being is never in the Scriptures called "God;" and in pp. 374, 400-1, 403, POSSEVIN, DURAND, and HUGH DE ST. CHER, Bishop TAYLOR, Dr. THOMAS Goodwin, Dr. EMMONS, and ministers of churches belonging to the English Congregationalists, that there is no instance, recorded in the Bible, of prayer having been offered up to him.

SECT. II.

THE HOLY SPIRIT EITHER GOD, THE FATHER, OR THE
DIVINE POWER, INFLUENCES, OR GIFTS.

The Sovereign Spirit of the world,

Not content,

By one exertion of creative power,

His goodness to reveal,- through every age,
Through every moment up the tract of time,
His parent-hand, with ever-new increase
Of happiness and virtue, has adorned

The vast harmonious frame; his parent-hand,
From the mute shell-fish gasping on the shore
To
men, to angels, to celestial minds,

For ever leads the generations on

To higher scenes of being.

MARK AKENSIDE.

§ 1. GOD, WITHOUT DISTINCTION OF PERSONS.

The term "Holy Spirit" has, in Scripture, various significations. First, it means God himself, who is a spirit that is holy, and who is sometimes characterized as having a soul. Thus, Jer. li. 14. Amos vi. 8, “God hath sworn by his soul;" that is, by himself. In this sense is "Holy Spirit" used in Isa. Ixiii. 10 [“ But they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit; therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them "]. PHILIP LIMBORCH: Theologia Christiana, lib. vi. cap. 6, § 2.

As we perceive that God possesses, and that too in the highest perfection, those qualities of intelligence and will which constitute a spiritual existence, we justly conclude that he is a Spirit. Hence it follows, that all the attributes which he possesses as a Spirit are connected either with his understanding or his will. And, as he possesses these attributes in the highest perfection, he is the most perfect Spirit. ...The Hebrew word, which is translated "spirit," signified, properly and originally, "wind," "breath" (and so "speech"), and "life."... The Hebrews gave the name to all the invisible powers, whether physical or moral, which they saw in operation in the universe, and consequently to God himself, who is possessed of all conceivable powers, in the highest possible degree. Thus and

[Spirit of Jehovah] came to signify (a) the nature of God