HOLT
410
HOLT
will guide them in their work (Acts, viii, 29), for He
will inspire the new prophets (Acts, xi, 28; xiii, 9),
as He inspired the Prophets of the Old Law (Acts, vii,
51). He is the source of graces and gifts (I Cor., xii,
3-11); He, in particular, grants the gift of tongues
(Acts, ii, 4; x, 44—47). And as he dwells in our
bodies and sanctifies them (I Cor., iii, 16; vi, 19),
so will he raise them again, one day, from the dead
(Rom., viii, 11). But he operates especially in the
soul, giving it a new life (Rom., viii, 9 sq.), being the
pledge that God has given us that we are His children
(Rom., viii, 14-16; II Cor., i, 22; v, 5; Gal., iv, 6).
He is the Spirit of God, and at the same time the
Spirit of Christ (Rom., viii, 9); because He is in God,
He knows the deepest mysteries of God (I Cor., Li, 10-
11), and He po.ssesses all knowledge. St. Paul ends
his Second Epistle to the Corinthians (xiii, 13) with
this formula of benediction, which might be called a
blessing of the Trinity: " The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and the charity of God, and the communica-
tion of the Holy Ghost be with vou all. " — Cf. TLxeront,
" Hist, des dogmes ", Paris, 1905, 1, 80, 89, 90, 100, 101.
B. While corroborating and explaining the testi-
mony of Scripture, Tratlition brings more clearly be-
fore us the various stages of the evolution of this
doctrine. As early as the first century, St. Clement
of Rome gives us important teaching about the Holy
Ghost. His "Epistle to the Corinthians" not only
tells us that the Spirit inspired and guided the holy
WTiters (viii, 1; xlv, 2); that He is the voice of Jesus
Christ speaking to us in the Old Testament (xxii, 1
sq.); but it contains further, two very explicit state-
ments about the Trinity. In c. xlvi, 6 (Funk, " Patres
apostolici' ',2nded.,I,l 58) , we read that ' ' we have only
one God, one Christ, one only Spirit of grace within
us, one same vocation in Christ". In Iviii, 2 (Funk,
ibid., 172), the author makes this solemn affirmation;
f5 yo-p ^ Sebs, Kal f'p 6 KvpLOi 'iTjffoOs XptffT^s Kal t6
TTVeUfML t6 dyiOV, ?! T€ TriaTiS Kal 7] ^\7rls tC)V iKXeKTCjv,
Sn . . . which we may compare with the formula so frequently met with in the Old Testament: fS Kvpios. From this it follows that, in Clement's view, /n/pios was equally applicable to 6 8e6! (the Father), 6 Kupios 'l-nffoOs XpKrrdi, and rb Tvevfw. t6 (S7101'; and that we have three witnesses of equal authority, whose Trinity, moreover, is the foundation of Christian faith and hope. The same doctrine is declared, in the second and third centuries, by the lips of the martyrs, and is found in the writings of the Fathers. St. Polycarp (tl. 155), in his torments, thus professed his faith in the Three .\doral)le Persons ("Martyrium sancti Polycarpi" in Funk, op. cit., I, 330): "Lord God Almighty, Father of Thy blessed and well beloved Son, Jesus Christ ... in everything I praise Thee, I bless Thee, I glorify Thee by the eternal and celestial pontiff Jesus Christ, Thy well beloved Son, by whom, to Thee, with Him and with the Holy Ghost, glory now and for ever!" St. Epipodius spoke more distinctly still (Ruinart, ".\cta mart.", Verona edi- tion, p. 65): "I confess that Christ is God with the Father and the Holy Ghost, and it is fitting that I should give back my soul to Him Who is my Creator and my Redeemer."
Among the apologists, Athenagoras mentions the Holy Ghost along with, and on the same plane as, the Father and the Son. "Who would not be aston- ished", says he (Legat. pro christian., n. 10, in P. G., VI, col. 909), "to hear us called atheists, us who confess God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Ghost, and hold them one in power and dis- tinct in order [. . . t^i' iv ry ivthtnt, Sijvafuv, Kal rijv iv Tj T<£J« Sialp€<Tiv]? " Theophilus of .\ntioch, who sometimes gives to the Holy Ghost, as to the Son, the name of U'wrfom (i7o0ia), mentions besides (Ad Autol., lib. I, n. 7, and II. n. IS, in P. G., VI, col. 1035, 1081) the three terms 0(6s, X67os, o-o0(o, and, being the first to apply the characteristic word that was afterwards
adopted, says expressly (ibid., II, 15) that they form
a trinity (rplar). Irenseus looks upon the Holy Ghost
as eternal (Adv. Ha?r., V, xii, n. 2, in P. G.,Vn, 1153),
existing in God ante omnem constitutionem, and pro-
duced by Him at the beginning of His ways (ibid.,
IV, XX, 3). Considered with regard to the Father,
the Holy Ghost is His wisdom (IV, xx, 3); the S(m
and He are the "two hands" by which God created
man (IV, pra;f., n. 4; IV, xx, 20; V, vi, 1). Con-
sidered with regard to the Churcli, the same Spirit is
truth, grace, a pledge of immortality, a principle of
union with God; intimately united to the Church, He
gives the sacraments their efficacy and virtue (III,
xvii, 2, xxiv, 1; IV, .xxxiii, 7; V, viii, 1). St. Ilippoly-
tus, though he does not speak at all clearly of the Holy
Ghost regarded as a distinct person, supposes Him,
however, to be God, as well as the Father and the Son
(Contra Noet., viii, xii, in P. G., X, 816, 820). Ter-
tuUian is one of the writers of this age whose temlency
to Subordinationism is most apparent, and that in
spite of his being the author of the definitive formula:
"Three persons, one substance". And yet his teach-
ing on the Holy Ghost is in every way remarkable.
He seems to have been the first among the Fathers to
affirm His Divinity in a clear and absolutely precise
manner. In his work " Adversus Praxean" he dwells
at length on the greatness of the Paraclete. The
Holy Ghost, he says, is God (c. xiii in P. L., II, 193);
of the substance of the Father (iii, iv in P. L., II,
lSl-2); one and the same God with the Father and
the Son (ii in P. L., II, 180); proceeding from the
Father through the Son (iv, viii in P. L., II, 182, 187) ;
teaching all truth (ii in P. L., II, 179). St. Gregory
Thaumaturgus, or at least the 'EicSca-is Trjs irtffTeas,
which is commonly attributed to him, and which dates
from the period 260-270, gives us this remarkable
passage (P. G., X, 933 sqq.): "One is God, Father of
the living Word, of the subsisting Wisdom. . . . One
the Lord, one of one, God of God, invisible of invisible.
. . One the Holy Ghost, having His subsistence from
God. . . . Perfect Trinity, which in eternity, glory,
and power, is neither divided, nor separated. . . .Lfn-
changing and immutable Trinity." In 304, the
martyr St. Vincent said (Ruinart, op. cit., 325): "I
confess the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father most
High, one of one ; I recognize Him as one God with the
Father and the Holy Ghost."
But we must come down towards the year 360 to find the doctrine on the Holy Gho.st explainc<l both fully and clearly. It is St. .\thanasius who does so in his "Letters to'Serapion" (P. G., XXVI, col. 525 sq.). He had been informed that certain Christians held that the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity was a creature. To refute them he questions the Scriptures, and they furnish him with arguments as solid as they are numerous. They tell him, in particular, that the Holy Ghost is united to the Son by relations just like those existing between the Son and the Father; that He is sent by the Son; that He is His mouth-piece and glorifies Him; that, unlike creatures. He has not been made out of nothing, but comes forth from God; that He performs a sanctifying work among men, of w hich no creature is capable; that in possessing Him we possess God; that the Father created everj'thing by Him; that, in fine. He is immutable, has the attri- butes of immensity, oneness, and has a right to all the appellations that arc used to express the dignity of the Son. Most of these conclusions he supports by means of Scriptural texts, a few from amongst which are given above. But the writer lays special stress on what is read in Matt., xxviii. 19. "The Lord", he WTites (Ad Scrap., Ill, n. 6, in P. G., XXVI, 6.33 .sq.), "founded the Faith of the Church on the Trinity, when He said to His Apostles: ' Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' If the Holy Ghost were a creature, Christ would not
