CHAP. III.-OF THE DEITY OF THE SPIRIT. EXAMINATION OF SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE ALLEGED FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, CONSIDERED AS THE THIRD PERSON OF THE TRINITY. 1. THE HOLY SPIRIT TERMED GOD, OR SUPPOSED TO BE SO TERMED. 1. Acts v. 3: Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy spirit? - Comp. ver. 4: Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. REMARKS. The Holy Ghost is explicitly called God, Acts v. 3, 4-Carlile. "To lie unto the Holy Spirit," and "to lie unto God," appear to be synonymous expressions.-Yates. The Divinity of the Holy Ghost is manifest from Scripture. True it is, that he is no where therein called God in ex press terms, though some have inferred it by way of consequence.-Limborch. He that lied to the Holy Ghost lied to God, who dwelleth in men by his Spirit. For where the Spirit of God is, there is God [himself]. For "hereby," saith the apostle," we know that God dwelleth in us, because he hath given us of his spirit."-Athanasius apud S. Clarke. 2. 1 Cor. iii. 16: Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the spirit of God dwelleth in you?- Comp. chap. vi. 19. REMARKS. Who should dwell in the temple of God, but God himself?-Carlile. They [Christians] are conceived to be so nearly allied and assimilated to the Divine Being, that God himself, as it were, enters into their very substance, and resides in them as if they were the temple of his peculiar presence.-Yates. The apostles knew that it belongeth not to the Supreme Deity, in his own person and substance, to inhabit any temple whatsoever on the earth, and to dwell in the breasts of men, but by his virtue and efficacy; and therefore they do not conclude, that we are the temple of God, or that God abideth in us, because the holy spirit that dwelleth in us is the Supreme God, but because the spirit of that God dwelleth in us, and was by him given to us.-Crellius. Job xxvi. 12, 13: He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud. By his spirit he garnisheth the heavens: his hand hath formed the crooked serpent. Luke i. 35: The holy spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Matt. xii. 28: If I cast out devils by the spirit of God, &c. (Comp. Luke xi. 20: If I with the finger of God, &c.) Heb. ii. 4: God also bearing [them] witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the holy spirit, according to his own will. gifts. Common Version. divisiones.-Tremellius. distributions.-Lardner. distributionibus.-Beza. apportionments.-Eyre. la distribution.-Le Clerc. c The spirit or power of God sometimes represents, not a person equal to God, but God himself. Gen. vi. 3: My spirit shall not always strive with man. Isa. xl. 13: Who hath directed the spirit of Jehovah? or, [being] his counsellor, hath taught him? - See Isa. lxiii. 10. 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11. et al. d By prosopopæia, the holy spirit is represented as a personal agent, distinct from God and Christ, and inferior to them. John xv. 25: When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, &c. Chap. xvi. 13: When he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall NOT SPEAK OF HIMSELF; but whatsoever he shall HEAR, [that] shall he speak, &c. CHAP. III.-OF THE DEITY OF THE SPIRIT. EXAMINATION OF SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE ALLEGED FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, CONSIDERED AS THE THIRD PERSON OF THE TRINITY. OBSERVATIONS. 1, 2. Many Trinitarians deem it unnecessary to adduce the slightest evidence for the Divinity of the Holy Ghost; assuming that if the Deity of Christ is founded on revelation, the former doctrine will inevitably follow. Others, justly dissatisfied with this defective mode of proving the doctrine of a Trinity in Unity, labour, by means of a host of Scripture passages, to support the Deity of what they call the third person of the blessed Trinity. But, if the former class egregiously err in assuming the truth of a Trinity from a real or supposed Duality of persons in the Godhead, the latter are no less inconclusive in their reasonings, when they take for granted that, because the holy spirit is probably designated God in some portions of Scripture, it must be a divine person, distinct from and equal to God the Father. So futile, indeed, are the arguments used to establish this point, that the most strenuous supporter of the doctrine of the spirit's impersonality might freely concede, that a considerable number of texts express or involve the Divinity of the spirit, without yielding up the distinguishing doctrine of Unitarianism, namely, the undivided Unity of one being—the absolute Supremacy of one person-the Father." In truth, he might justly claim these texts as affording no inconsiderable support to his own views respecting the Deity. For if the holy spirit is not, as he conceives, merely the power or agency of God, or his influence on the human mind, or his miraculous gifts, but the Almighty Being himself, this Being can be no other than the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, unless clearly mentioned in the Bible as a person distinct from and equal to the Father- —a point which is readily assumed by Trinitarians, but has never yet been proved. We do not, however, mean to deny, that in some portions of the Christian Volume, the spirit of God is spoken of as a personal agent, distinct from the Father; but it is worthy of particular remark, that, unless such language be considered as of a figurative nature, representing the extraordinary aids which were bestowed on the apostles for the furtherance of the Gospel, the holy spirit will in these passages signify, neither the supernatural influence of the Deity, nor God the Father himself, nor a divine person equal to him in power and glory, but a being appointed to act in the capacity of Messenger to God and Christ, and who was therefore furnished with the qualifications requisite for performing the office assigned him to fulfil.d b с II. OMNIPOTENCE. 3. Gen. i. 2: The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. A mighty wind oversweeping, &c.-Geddes. See page 118, reference j. REMARKS. Not only Onkelos and Jonathan, but both the Arabs and the Persic agree in understanding RUH of a wind; nay, all the other ancient translators ought, I conceive, to be so understood; as the terms which they employ in rendering it-RUHE Syriac, TV Greek, spiritus Latin more properly denote air, breath, wind, than what we commonly call spirit; this latter being only a secondary and metaphorical acceptation.-Geddes in loc. Moses afterwards adds that Elohim spoke, and that the Spirit of Elohim moved upon the waters. If three persons are noted here, there will be no distinction between them: for it will follow, that the Son was begotten by himself; and that the Spirit does not proceed from the Father, but from himself.-Calvin. 4. Ps. xxxiii. 6: By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath (or spirit) of his mouth, ILLUSTRATIVE TEXTS. • Gen. i. throughout: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Kings xix. 15: O Jehovah God of Israel! .. thou art the God, [even] thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. Job xxvi. 13: By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent. Chap. xxxiii. 4: The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. Isa. xlii. 5: Thus saith God Jehovah, He that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein. Comp. ver. 6: I Jehovah have called thee (namely, Christ, the servant of God, ver. 1) in righteousness.- Chap. xliv. 24: I [am] Jehovah that maketh all [things]; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself. Jer. li. 14, 15: Jehovah of hosts.. hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding. Acts iv. 24-30: Lord, thou [art] God, who hast made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all, &c. Of a truth, against thy holy child (or, servant) Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, &c. See Neh. ix. 6. Job ix. 2-9. Ps. viii. 3-8. Acts xvii. 24—31. et al, ƒ See Chap. II. pages 186-193. 9 See P. 70-72. h See p. 39, 40. i John xiv. 10: The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself; but the Father, that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. (Comp. Acts ii. 22: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him, &c.) j Luke xi. 20: But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. (Comp. Exod. viii. 19: Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This [is] the finger of God. Ps. viii. 3: When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained.) OBSERVATIONS. 3, 4. Amongst the important and distinguished doctrines of revelation, none holds a more conspicuous place than this-that the universe, of which the earth forms a small portion, is the production of only One Intelligent Agent, of that glorious Being who is represented in the Old Testament as the Jehovah God of the Jews, and in the New as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the benevolent Parent of his animated and rational creation. But clear and prominent as are the characters by which this great doctrine is expressed, many of the disciples of Jesus, blinded by the prejudices of scholastic theology, have vainly thought they discerned, in the pages of the Bible, allusions and declarations involving or teaching a contrary dogma, namely, that three divine and equal persons were engaged in the work of creation. In a former place we examined the arguments adduced to prove, that Christ was the originator of the universe; and found them nugatory. Respecting the texts brought forward to establish the creative agency of a third divine person, it may be sufficient to say, that if Gen. i. 2 is to be considered as affording evidence for that doctrine, the argument would effectually destroy itself, as well as another founded on the plural word ALEIM, God, forming a part of the phrase in the text under discussion: for if this word necessarily imply a plurality of persons in the Godhead, -namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, -the spirit of Aleim must either signify the creative influence of God, or involve the notion of a Quaternity of divine persons; and if the Hebrew term signifying God does not indicate plurality, then the expression spirit of God can still only denote the vivifying energy of the One Divine Person, or, at the utmost, imply the existence of no more than two persons, one of whom may be inferior to the other! With regard to Ps. xxxiii. 6, and similar passages, adduced to prove the creative operations of a third divine person distinct from the Father, the reader is referred to p. 85–6. 5, 6. If there be any doctrine which approaches in importance to the perfect Oneness and Paternity of the Supreme Being, and to the clearness and frequency of the passages teaching or implying these notions, that doctrine is, that the God and Father of Jesus Christ, and no other divine person whatsoever, was the Almighty Being from whom our Lord derived the extraordinary powers which he possessed, and by which he was enabled to perform his wonderful works. This is proved by all those passages of Scripture which speak of Christ as the Son, the Prophet, the Servant, and Messenger of the Father; as the humble and devout Petitioner of the Father; and as a person who expressly declared, that "the Father who dwelt in him He did the works. In consistency with these views would we interpret such portions of the New Testament as refer the agency of Christ in performing miracles to the "spirit or finger of God;"; that is, the power of his almighty Father. The spirit of a man knows the things of a man; that is, a man is conscious of all the schemes, plans, and purposes, that pass in his own mind; and no man can know these things but himself. So, the Spirit of God, He whom we call the Third Person of the glorious Trinity, knows all the counsels and determinations of the Supreme Being.—A. Clarke. If the holy spirit were a person distinct from the Father and Son, which, speaking properly, should be said to know, it could not rightly be affirmed that none besides him knoweth the things of God. -Crellius. He would be a strange reasoner who should imagine, that the spirit or intellectual faculty of a man was a different agent from the man himself; and in like manner, from the nature of the apostle's argument, it must be equally absurd to conclude, that the spirit of God the Father is a distinct person or agent from God the Father himself.-Christie. V.-ETERNAL EXISTENCE. 9. Heb. ix. 14: How much more shall the blood, &c. (as in ref. p.) REMARKS. The holy spirit.] This is the reading of the Clermont and some other MSS. and of the Coptic, Vulgate, and other versions. It is wanting in the Ethiopic. The received text, with the Alexandrine and other copies, and the Syriac and other versions, reads awvov, eternal, or everlasting.-Belsham. ILLUSTRATIVE TEXTS. k Ps. cxxxix. 7-10: Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou [art] there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou [art there]. [If] I.. dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, &c. 1 John iv. 23,24: The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God [is] a spirit; and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth. m See Part First, pages 79-85. n 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11: But God hath revealed [them] unto us by his spirit; for the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God. no man.-Com. Ver. nemo.-Beza, Tremellius. none.-Imp. Ver. no one. Whitby (Com.), Eyre. Ver. 12: Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. o 1 Cor. xiii. 4-7: Charity suffereth long, [and] is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. - See Prov. viii. John i. 13; iii. 8. Rom. viii. 6. Gal. iii. 8. et al. (as in page 88.) p Heb. ix. 14: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? who through the eternal spirit; i. e. by his own never-dying spirit, or by the power of an endless life.-Lardner. who through the everlasting spirit.-Imp. Version. who by the holy spirit; i.e. by express divine direction.-Belsham. q See John xvii. 3. 1 Thess. i. 9, 10. |