Spirit of God

 THOUGH the Catholic doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the characteristics of the Three Persons have been taught from the first, there have been in the Church certain difficulties in determining what passages of Scripture belong to Each, what are the limits of Their respective offices, and what are the terms under which those offices and the acts of those offices are to be expressed. Thus the word "Spirit," if the Fathers are to be our expositors, sometimes means Almighty God, without distinction of Persons, sometimes the Son, and sometimes and more commonly the Holy Ghost. And, while the Son and Spirit divide, so to speak, the economy and mission of mercy between Them, it is not always clear how the line of division runs, and in what cases there is no assignable line.

 It is with a view to remove some portion of this difficulty that Athan. observes, Serap. i. 4-7, that the Holy Ghost is never in Scripture called simply "Spirit" without the addition "of God," or "of the Father," or "from Me," or of the article, or of "Holy," or "The Paraclete," or "of truth," or unless He has been spoken of just before. This rule, however, goes but a little way to remove the difficulty, as it exists in fact. One important class of questions is suggested at once by the Holy Ghost being another Paraclete, which implies that that office is common to Him and the Son. It is hence, I suppose, that in St. Paul's words, "[ ho kurios to pneuma estin ]," 2 Cor. iii. 17, Spirit is understood of the Third Divine Person by Origen. c. Cels. vi. 70. Basil de Spir. S. n. 52. Pseudo-Athan. Comm. Ess. 6. But there are more important instances than this. "Spirit" is used more or less distinctly of our Lord's divine nature, whether in itself or as incarnate, in John vi. 64, Rom. i. 4, 1 Cor. xv. 45, 1 Tim. iii. 16, Hebr. ix. 14, 1 Pet. iii. 18, etc. Indeed, the early Fathers speak as if the "Holy Ghost" which came down on Mary might be considered the Word, e.g. Tertullian against the Valentinians, "If the Spirit of God did not descend into the womb to partake in flesh from the womb, why did He descend at all?" de Carn. Chr. 19. vid. also ibid. 5 and 14. contr. Prax. 26. Just. Apol. i. 33. Iren. Hær. v. 1. Cypr. Idol. Van. 6. (p. 19, Oxf. Tr.) Lactant. Instit. iv. 12. vid.also Hilar. Trin. ii. 26. Athan. [ logos en toi pneumati eplatte to soma ]. Serap. i. 31, fin. [ en toi logoi en to pneuma ]. ibid. iii. 6. And more distinctly even as late as S. Maximus, [ auton, anti sporas sullabousa ton logon, kekueke ]. t. 2, p. 309. The earliest ecclesiastical authorities are S. Ignatius ad Smyrn. init. and S. Hermas (even though his date were A.D. 150), who also says plainly, "Filius autem Spiritus Sanctus est." Past. iii. 5, n. 5. The same use of "Spirit" for the Word or Godhead of the Word is also found in Tatian. adv. Græc. 7. Athenag. Leg. 10. Theoph. ad Autol. ii. 10. Tertull. Apol. 23. Lact. Inst. iv. 6, 8. Hilar. Trin. ix. 3 and 14. Eustath. apud Theod. Eran. iii. p. 235. Athan. de Incarn. 22 (if it be Athanasius's), contr. Apol. i. 8. Apollinar. ap. Theod. Eran. i. p. 71, and the Apollinarists passim. Greg. Naz. Ep. 101. ad Cledon. p. 85. Ambros. Incarn. 63. Severian. ap. Theod. Eran. ii. p. 167. Vid. Grot. ad Marc. ii. 8. Bull. Def. F. N. i. 2, § 5. Coustant. Præf. in Hilar. 57, etc. Montfaucon in Athan. Serap. iv. 19.

 PhSbadius too, in his remarks on 2nd Confession of Sirmium (the "blasphemia"), supr. vol. i. p. 116 note, in condemning the clause, "Hominem suscepisse per quem compassus est," as implying that our Lord's higher nature was not divine, but of the nature of a soul, uses the word "spiritus" in the sense of Hilary and the Ante-Nicene Fathers. "Impassibilis Deus," he says, "quia Deus Spiritus ... non ergo passibilis Dei Spiritus, licet in homine suo passus."

 Again, Athan. says that our Lord's Godhead was the immediate anointing or chrism of the manhood He assumed. "God needed not the anointing, nor was the anointing made without God; but God both applied it, and also received it in that body which was capable of it." in Apollin. ii. 3. and [ to chrisma ego ho logos, to de christhen hup' emou ho anthropos ]. Orat. iv. § 36. vid. Origen. Periarch. ii. 6. n. 4. And S. Greg. Naz. still more expressly, and from the same text as Athan., "The Father anointed Him 'with the oil of gladness above His fellows,' anointing the manhood with the Godhead ." Orat. 10. fin. Again, "This [the Godhead] is the anointing of the manhood, not sanctifying by an energy as the other Christs [anointed ones], but by a presence of that Whole who anointed, [ holou tou chriontos ]; whence it came to pass that what anointed was called man, and what was anointed was made God." Orat. 30. 20. "He Himself anointed Himself; anointing as God the body with his Godhead, and anointed as man." Damasc. F. O. iii. 3. "Dei Filius, sicut pluvia in velbus, toto divinitatis unguento nostram se fudit in carnem." Chrysolog. Serm. 60. It is more common, however, to consider that the anointing was the descent of the Spirit, as Athan. says, Orat. i. § 47, according to Luke iv. 18. Acts x. 38.

 Again, in explaining Matt. xii. 32, "Quicunque dixerit verbum contra Filium," etc., he considers our Lord to contrast the Holy Ghost with His own humanity, vid. Orat. i. § 50, but he gives other expositions in Serap. iv. 6, vid. supr. art. Scripture Passages, No. 11.

 "The Spirit is God's gift," says Athan., [ theou doron ], Orat. ii. § 18. And so S. Basil, [ doron tou theou to pneuma ]. de Sp. S. 57, and more frequently the later Latins, as in the Hymn, "Altissimi Donum Dei;" also the earlier, e.g. Hil. de Trin. ii. 29, and August. Trin. xv. n. 29, who makes it a personal characteristic of the Third Person in the Holy Trinity: "non dicitur Verbum Dei, nisi Filius, nec Donum Dei, nisi Spiritus Sanctus." And elsewhere, "Exiit, non quomodo natus, sed quomodo datus, et ideo non dicitur Filius." ibid. v. 15, making it, as Petavius observes, His eternal property, "ut sic procedat, tanquam donabile," as being Love. Trin. vii. 13, § 20.

 It was an expedient of the Macedonians to deny that the Holy Spirit was God because it was not usual to call Him Ingenerate; and perhaps to their form of heresy, which was always implied in Arianism, and which began to show itself formally among the Semi-Arians ten years later, the Sirmian anathematism may be traced: "Whoso speaking of the Holy Ghost as Paraclete, shall speak of the Ingenerate God," etc., supr. vol. i. p. 113. They asked the Catholics whether the Holy Spirit was Ingenerate, generate, or created, for into these three they divided all things. vid. Basil. in Sabell. et Ar. Hom. xxiv. 6. But, as the Arians had first made the alternative only between Ingenerate and created, and Athan. de Decr. § 28, supr. vol. i. p. 50, shows that generate is a third idea really distinct from one and the other, so S. Greg. Naz. adds proceeding, [ ekporeuton ], as an intermediate idea, contrasted with Ingenerate, yet distinct from generate . Orat. xxxi. 8. In other words, Ingenerate means, not only not generate, but not from any origin . vid. August. de Trin. xv. n. 47, 8.

 "If the Word be not from God," says Athan., "reasonably might they deny Him to be Son; but if He is from God, how see they not that what exists from any, is the son of that from whom it is?" Orat. iv. § 15. In consequence it is a very difficult question in theology, why the Holy Spirit is not called a "Son," and His procession "generation." This was an objection of the Arians, vid. ad Serap. i. 15-17, and Athan. only answers it by denying that we may speculate. Other writers apply, as in other cases, the theological language of the Church to a solution of this question. It is carefully discussed in Petav. Trin. vii. 13, 14.

 As the Arians objected, Orat. i. § 14, that the First and Second Persons of the Holy Trinity ought to be considered brothers, [ adelphoi ], so, in the course of the controversy, did they say the same as to the Second and Third. vid. Serap. i. § 15. iv. 2.

 "Is the Holy Spirit one," says Athan., "and the Paraclete another, and the Paraclete the later, as not mentioned in the Old Testament?" Orat. iv. § 29. A heresy of this kind is actually noticed by Origen, viz. of those "qui Spiritum Sanctum alium quidem dicant esse qui fuit in Prophetis, alium autem qui fuit in Apostolis Domini nostri Jesu Christi." In Tit. t. 4, p. 695. Hence in the Creed, "who spake by the prophets;" and hence the frequent epithet given by S. Justin to the Holy Spirit of [ prophetikon ]; e.g. when speaking of baptism, Apol. i. 61, fin. Also Ap. i. 6, 13. Tryph. 49. On the other hand, he calls the Spirit of the Prophets "the Holy Spirit," e.g. Tryph. 54, 61. Vid. supr. art. Coinherence .