which both do imply this faculty and power" (Eccles. Pol. V. xlviii. 9).

Failing, then, to find that which truly individualises the person in the Intelligence or in the Will, we seek it, with Bishop Butler and Locke, in that reflective or selfreferent faculty which we call Consciousness. My con sciousness is altogether my own; all persons have it, and none can share it with another. We may, therefore, best define a person to be an individual conscious being.1

Now, let us apply this definition to the word Person as used in the doctrine of the Trinity. Each person in the blessed Trinity is an individual conscious Being. The Being (or nature or substance) is one and the same in all; and therefore the Will is one and the same in all. It is the Consciousness which individualises the Three Persons. Each person is conscious of a certain definite relation to the other two. The Father has the Being, with the consciousness of self-existence: the Son has the Being, with the consciousness of being generated of the Father: the Holy Ghost has the Being, with the consciousness of proceeding from Both. It is this consciousness which seems to differentiate the three Persons.

Thus the nature of God is in this respect the converse of our nature. It is our nature to be one in person, manifold in substance (body, soul, and spirit); it is God's nature to be one in substance, manifold (that is, threefold) in person. God's substance being the original uncreated substance, whereon all other substance de

1 P.S. 1877.-Keble's definition is a "living, conscious, willing agent."-Studia Sacra, p. 12.

pends for its existence,' can only be one; but in this one substance there are revealed to us three distinct self-conscious agents, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Being of one substance these three Divine Persons are not separable, as three human persons are separable, but ever united and inseparable, being one God.

Each of the three Divine Persons acts distinctly and individually; for example, the Father creates, the Son redeems, the Holy Ghost sanctifies.

And yet in each of these acts, inasmuch as it is an act of God, all the Three Persons concur.

Thus in the beginning, "God created the heavens and the earth;" but it was by the Word; and the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters.2

Again, it was Christ who "redeemed us to God by His blood;" but we read also that "God hath visited and redeemed His people;" and it was "through the eternal Spirit" that Christ "offered Himself to God."3

And lastly, St. Paul tells us that we are "sanctified by the Holy Ghost;" and yet our Lord speaks of sanctifying Himself that He might sanctify us; and in the same passage prays to His Father that He will sanctify us.*

These general remarks on the doctrine of the Trinity are premised for clearness' sake, that we may see dis

1 Descartes (Principia Philosophiæ, Pt. ii. 51) defines Substance, in this its highest sense, thus :-" Per substantiam nihil aliud intelligere possumus, quam rem quæ ita existit ut nullâ aliâ re indigeat ad existendum. Et quidem substantia quæ nullâ aliâ re indigeat, unica tantum potest intelligi, nempe Deus."

2 Gen. i. 1-3.

3 Rev. v. 9; Luke i. 68; Heb. ix. 14.

• Rom. xv. 16; John xvii. 17, 19.

tinctly what our Church has gathered from Scripture respecting the Holy Ghost; it is no less than this:-(1.) that He is a distinct Person; and (2.) that He is of the same Divine substance as the Father and the Son, concurring therefore in every act of the Father and in every act of the Son.

Now let us open the Bible, and observe for ourselves how its language necessitates this belief respecting the Holy Ghost.

I. First, as to His personality, we have Christ's own baptismal formula: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The Spirit is here spoken of in precisely the same manner as the Son. We all confess that the Father and the Son are persons; this formula then obliges us to confess the same of the Spirit.

But other Scriptures also are unintelligible unless He be a distinct Person.

Take Rom. viii. 26: "The Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." He intercedeth with whom? With the Father. How then can he possibly be a mere energy of the Father?

Eph. iv. 30: "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God."

I Cor. ii. 10: "He searcheth all things, yea, even the deep things of God;" and xii. II: "All these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will." Could His personality be more distinctly implied?

Acts xiii. 2: "The Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them."

Chiefest of all we have our Lord's expressions concerning Him in His Last Supper discourse (John xiv. xv. xvi.)

"The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He" (masculine in the Greek, though the word for Spirit is neuter) "shall teach you all things." "He shall testify of Me."

"If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world. . . . He will guide you into all the truth. For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. . . . He shall glorify me, for He shall receive of Mine, and show it unto you."

What have we here? "A Person hearing, a Person receiving, a Person testifying, a Person reproving, a Person instructing" (Bishop Pearson).

Some have said, "Yes, but so St. Paul personifies charity: Charity suffereth long, and is kind; Charity envieth not, etc. ;-meaning, not that Charity is a person, but that persons who have charity act thus. So" (they say), "when the Holy Spirit is said to do this thing or that, we may understand that the Father doeth these things by virtue of His Holy Spirit, i.e. His power or influence."

Nay, but how if that which the Holy Spirit doeth is what God the Father could not be said to do? He intercedeth with the Father. How could the Father intercede with Himself ? He is sent by the Father. He receiveth from the Father.

Again, others have said, "He cannot be a Person

because He is said to be given, and a gift is a thing." Nay, but what saith Holy Scripture of the Second Person? "Unto us a Son is given;" "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son."

II. Having shown that the Holy Ghost is a distinct person, we must now show that He is Divine, that is, of one substance with God.

And first, that Baptismal formula would be a blasphemy if it were not so.

And again, Christ's language about the sin against the Holy Ghost, as even more fearful than a sin against the Son of Man, would be utterly inexplicable, were He not very God (Matt. xii. 32).

And again, St Peter spoke of lying unto the Holy Ghost, and lying unto God, as equivalent (Acts v. 3, 4).

And again, St. Paul's crowning argument against sins of the flesh is that our body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. vi. 19), which he elsewhere expresses thus: "The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are " (iii. 17). That St. Paul entirely and profoundly believed that Christ's baptismal formula implied the Spirit's Divinity as well as personality would be unanswerably proved by that one verse even if it stood alone, in which he gives the Corinthians his solemn blessing: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all" (2 Cor. xiii. 14).

And that the Holy Ghost is of one and the same substance as the first Person of the Godhead, is proved by