in general; (b) his invisible power, as exercised both in the materia. world, in its creation (Gen. i. 2), &c., and in the soul of man, in promoting its moral improvement, in the act of inspiration, and in various other ways: vide 2 Sam. xxiii. 1, 2. - G. C. KNAPP: Christian Theology, sect. xix.

To our minds, it [the phrase Spirit of God, or Holy Spirit] has a definite meaning. We understand it as the third person of the Holy Trinity. The usage in the Old Testament does not necessarily imply such a knowledge. It is sometimes a term convertible with God. Sometimes it means a divine influence. It is the exerted or manifested power of Jehovah. It is either God himself, or an agency assumed as the medium of the divine operation. There is no positive evidence that the Spirit spoken of in the Old Testament was recognized either as a mode of the divine existence, or as one of a Trinity of persons in the divine essence. It was either a name of God himself, not indicating any peculiarity in his nature, or the expression of the divine energy as it produced results in the material world, or enlightened and directed the human mind. DR. SETH SWEETSER, in Bibliotheca Sacra for January, 1854; vol. xi. p. 99.

§ 2. THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE POWER, INFLUENCE, OR GIFTS

OF GOD.

He that will carefully observe the language of the Holy Ghost shall find that this word "Spirit," or "Holy Ghost," is most usually, in the New Testament, taken for the extraordinary gifts of that age. RICHARD BAXTER: Unreasonableness of Infidelity; in Practical Works, vol. xx. p. 7.

For the better understanding of these words [viz. "full of the Holy Ghost," in Luke iv. 1.], it is to be observed, that by the term "Holy Ghost" is to be understood the prophetic gifts wherewithal Christ was filled for the preaching and publishing of the gospel, as the revealing of the will of God, and working miracles. The Jews, by the phrase "Holy Ghost," continually intend prophetic gifts, wherewith men and women were endued; and in this sense is the expression most constantly to be taken in the New Testament, when it speaketh not of the third person in the Trinity itself; as, Luke i. 15, 41, 67. John vii. 39. Acts ii. 4; viii. 18; x. 44; xiii. 52; xix. 2; and in very many other places. To work miracles, to expound difficulties, to heal diseases, to teach divinity, to foretell things to come,

and the like, were not so properly the fruit of the union of the human nature to the Godhead; for even mere men had been enabled to do the same. Abridged from DR. JOHN LIGHTFOOT: Harmony of the Four Evangelists; in Works, vol. iv. pp. 351–3.

Spirit" signifies wind or breath; and in the Old Testament it stands frequently in that sense. The "Spirit of God," or "wind of God," stands sometimes for a high and strong wind; but more frequently it signifies a secret impression made by God on the mind of a prophet. In the New Testament, this word "Holy Ghost" stands most commonly for that wonderful effusion of those miraculous virtues that was poured out at Pentecost on the apostles; by which their spirits were not only exalted with extraordinary degrees of zeal and courage, of authority and utterance, but they were furnished with the gifts of tongues and of miracles. And, besides that first and great effusion, several Christians received particular talents and inspirations, which are most commonly expressed by the word "Spirit" or inspiration. Those inward assistances by which the frame and temper of men's minds are changed and renewed are likewise called "the Spirit," or the "Holy Spirit," or "Holy Ghost." So Christ said to Nicodemus, that, "except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God;" and that his "heavenly Father would give the Holy Spirit to every one that asked him." By these it is plain that extraordinary or miraculous inspirations are not meant; for these are not every Christian's portion. BISHOP BURNET: Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, Art. V. p. 84.

There are many passages in which "the Spirit of God" means gifts or powers communicated to men, and from which we are not warranted to infer that there is a person who is the fountain and distributer of these gifts. So we read often in the Old Testament, "The Spirit of the Lord came upon him," when nothing more is necessarily implied under the expression than that the person spoken of was endowed with an extraordinary degree of skill or might or wisdom. So the promises of the Old Testament, "I will pour out my spirit upon you," were fulfilled under the New Testament by what are there called "the gifts of the Holy Ghost;" in reference to which we read, “that Christians received the Holy Ghost," "that the Holy Ghost was given to them," "that they were filled with the Spirit.” Neither the words of the promise, nor the words that relate to the fulfilment of it, suggest the personality of the Spirit. — DR. GEORGE HILL: Lectures in Divinity, vol. i. p. 439.

It is agreed, on all sides, that the word "spirit," originally signifying air in motion, and breath, was applied in some more remote significations, and particularly to mind and its affections, to intelligent creatures superior to man, and to any species of powerful influence, the cause of which was imperfectly or not at all known; but more especially to the immediate energy of the Deity; and, in a still more restricted sense, to the Deity himself. It is further admitted, that, in many places, the phrase "spirit of God" and its synonyms are used to denote any especial influence or energy of God, whether exercised in a miraculous manner, or according to the ordinary laws But an accurate examination will, I conceive, satisfactorily

of nature. show that, &c. vol. ii. p. 446.

DR. J. P. SMITH: Script. Testimony to the Messiah,

[“Holy Spirit"] frequently signifies the divine nature, or God himself; but it also denotes the divine power, as displayed both in the material and spiritual world; also the divine understanding and knowledge, and the communication of it to men. . . . All who oppose the truth of God, or persecute the prophets who teach it, even those who put hindrances in the way of the influence of religion over themselves or others, are said to resist the Holy Spirit, to afflict, to grieve it, &c., Isa. lxiii. 10; Eph. iv. 30; Acts vii. 51. Since, now, the sacred writers, like all others, make use of the figure prosopopeia, and personify these divine influences, speaking of them as the "Holy Spirit," as they often do of the wisdom and other attributes of God, we should be cautious in the selection of texts from which the personality of the Holy Spirit is to be proved. We should rest content with those which are most clear and explicit; for nothing is gained by collecting a large number. GEO. C. KNAPP: Christian

Theology, sect. xxxix. I.

For proof of the personality of the Holy Ghost, as different from that of the Father, Dr. KNAPP rests chiefly on John xiv. 16, 17; xv. 26; and on a few other passages, which represent the Spirit of God as willing, searching, speaking, sending, &c. But those to which he refers in the Gospel of John teach, according to the acknowledgment of our author, that the Spirit was commissioned by and dependent on the Father and the Son; and therefore, unhappily for the Trinitarian cause, prove too much. The other passages may easily be brought under KNAPP's own principles of interpretation; that is, the Holy Spirit may either signify God himself, without having any reference to hypostatical distinctions, or, by the figure prosopopeia, be spoken of as having personal attributes, without implying a real personal consciousness.

SECT. III.

THE HOLY SPIRIT, IF A PERSON DIFFERENT FROM THE
FATHER, INFERIOR TO HIM AND CHRIST.

That heavenly Teacher, sent from God,

Shall your whole soul inspire;

Your minds shall fill with sacred truth,

Your hearts with sacred fire.

SCOTCH PARAPHRASE.

There is an order, by which, of these persons, the Father is the first, the Son the second, and the Holy Ghost the third. Nor is this order arbitrary or external, but internal and necessary, by virtue of a subordination of the second unto the first, and of the third unto the first and second. The Godhead was communicated from the Father to the Son, not from the Son unto the Father. . . . Again, the same Godhead was communicated by the Father and the Son unto the Holy Ghost, not by the Holy Ghost to the Father or the Son. . . This was also done from all eternity.. The Father is never sent by the Son, because he received not the Godhead from him; but the Father sendeth the Son, because he communicated the Godhead to him. In the same manner, neither the Father nor the Son is ever sent by the Holy Spirit, because neither of them received the divine nature from the Spirit; but both the Father and the Son sendeth the Holy Ghost, because the divine nature, common to both the Father and the Son, was communicated by them both to the Holy Ghost. . . . As the Son is God of God by being of the Father, so the Holy Ghost is God of God by being of the Father and the Son, as receiving that infinite and eternal essence from them both. - BISHOP PEARSON: Exposition of the Creed, Art. VIII. pp. 452, 454–5.

The Holy Ghost... is not self-originated, but proceedeth from the Father eternally as his original, and is sent by the Son. — BISHOP BULL: Life by Robert Nelson, p. 304.

The dogma of the Spirit's eternal procession seems to be quite repugnant to reason, and is certainly nowhere revealed in the Sacred Scriptures: see Dr. ISAAC BARROW, as quoted in p. 319; and COCHLEUS, MASENIUS, RICHARD HOOKER, Bishop SANDERSON, LE CLERC, and JAMES CARLILE, in pp. 273-4, 331-2, 367, 375. But the supposition of its truth would necessarily imply the inferiority of such a being to the person or persons from whom he derived his existence and perfections, as is proved, in pp. 270–2, 274–6, 322–3, by SCHLEIERMACHER, EMMONS, Stuart, D. W. CLARK, and JAMES HUGHES.

486 THE SPIRIT, IF A DIFFERENT PERSON, INFERIOR TO CHRIST.

Let it be considered, that, however great and glorious, however mighty and powerful, however wise and knowing, however venerable and adorable, this person [the Holy Ghost] is, and however intimate with and united to God the Father, yet that all that he is, and all that he does, is to be referred to Christ, as the Author and Fountain of it. — DR. DANIEL WATERLAND: Eight Sermons, pp. 193–4.

It is one benefit or privilege of the person of Christ, when spoken of as distinct from the Father, to have the Spirit of God under him, to be at his disposal, and to be his Messenger; which is infinitely too much for any creature. John xv. 26; xvi. 7, 13, 14; and Acts ii. 33. PRESIDENT EDWARDS: Works, vol. iii. p. 535.

The Spirit, who revealed the gospel to the apostles, and enabled them to confirm it by miracles, received the whole from Christ. He, therefore, is the light of the world; and the Spirit, who inspired the apostles, shone on them with a light borrowed from him. So Christ himself hath told us, John xvi. 13-15. DR. JAMES MACKNIGHT: Translation of the Apostolical Epistles, Essay 1.

As Christ glorifies the Father, so the Spirit glorifies Christ: he is the vicegerent and deputy of Christ, as Christ of the Father. He glorifies, not himself, but Christ, and, in Christ, God. ROBERT HALL: Notes of Sermons; in Works, vol. iv. p. 568

The inferiority of the Holy Ghost to the Father, or to the Father and the Son, is also acknowledged by Dr. ISAAC BARROW, Archbishop TILLOTSON, Bishop FOWLER, WITSIUS, LIMBORCH, and HOLDEN, as already quoted in pp. 266, 280, 393-5. To these authorities it would be easy to add a host of others.

Those passages, however, which speak of the Holy Spirit as a person distinct from and inferior to the Father and the Son, are better explained on the supposition that the power of God, which was communicated to Christ, and which he promised as a Comforter or Teacher to the apostles, was, according to a figure of speech common in all languages, personified. This interpretation is borne out by the fact, that, in the Acts of the Apostles, where the promise is mentioned as having been fulfilled, this Holy Spirit is usually spoken of in terms which are more applicable to a thing than to a being. See BAXTER, LIGHTFOOT, BURNET, and HILL, as quoted in pages 482-3.